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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake with a white batter and a dark batter containing raisins, figs, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the light batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar.

  3. Add 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of milk, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, and the egg whites. Mix the batter well.

  4. Pour the batter into cake pans.

  5. Bake until golden.

Make the dark batter and assemble

  1. Cream together ¾ cup of butter and 2 cups of sugar for the dark layer.

  2. Mix in 3½ cups of flour, 1 cup of cold water with 1 teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in it, and the egg yolks.

  3. Stir in the chopped raisins, sliced figs, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  4. Pour the dark mixture into cake pans.

  5. Bake until done.

  6. Layer the white and dark cakes together.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the cakes a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Whipped or beaten into the batter to add structure and lift to the light layer.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture to the dark layer and help bind it.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the light layer rises.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dark batter's ingredients to help it rise and darken slightly.
Figs
Add moisture, sweetness and chewy texture to the dark layer.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, milk, egg, raisin, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Applefits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, milk, egg, raisin, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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