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Dessert

Good Holiday Cake

A dense cake made with flour, butter, lard, currants, raisins, candied peel, sugar, eggs, and milk, baked at 350°F for 2–2.5 hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Good Holiday Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Mix the baking powder with the flour.

  2. Rub in the butter and lard.

  3. Wash, pick, and dry the currants.

  4. Cut the raisins into small pieces.

  5. Slice the candied peel.

Make the batter

  1. Add the currants, raisins, candied peel, and sugar to the flour mixture and mix well.

  2. Whisk the eggs and stir in the milk.

  3. Moisten the cake mixture with the egg and milk mixture, beating well to combine.

Bake

  1. Line a cake tin with buttered paper.

  2. Pour in the cake batter.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 2 to 2.5 hours.

  4. Insert a clean knife into the center to check if done; it should come out clean.

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

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

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour.
Lard
Adds fat that shortens the crumb, giving a tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as they set.
Currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy fruit pieces throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Checking doneness with a clean knife. A long bake at moderate heat can dry the outside while the centre is still wet. Testing the centre with a knife, which should come out clean, confirms the eggs and starch have set through.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, raisin, sugar, egg, milk. 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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