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Dessert

Bride-Cake

A fruit cake made with almonds, candied citrus, currants, and spices, baked for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Bride-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.

Prepare

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

  2. Blanch the almonds and cut them lengthwise into thin slices.

  3. Prepare a cake pan by tying three sheets of paper around the bottom to prevent leaking and greasing it with butter.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter with your hands, then beat in the sugar for 15 minutes.

  2. Beat the egg whites until very frothy, then mix them with the butter and sugar.

  3. Beat the egg yolks for at least 30 minutes, then mix them into the batter.

  4. Add the flour, mace, and nutmeg, and beat well until combined.

  5. Stir in the brandy, currants, and almonds gently.

Bake

  1. Pour in the batter and layer the sweetmeats with cake in between.

  2. Bake for 3 hours, covering with paper if it browns too quickly.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites beaten to froth and yolks beaten in give the batter lift and a light, tender crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Beaten with the butter, it sweetens the cake and helps create a light, aerated batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sweet almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavour throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake for 3 hours, covering with paper if it browns too quickly. A long bake at moderate heat can scorch the outside before the centre sets. Covering the cake with paper shields the surface from direct heat, so it finishes cooking through without darkening too much.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, lemon, brandy, butter, sugar, egg, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, lemon, brandy, butter, sugar, egg, flour. 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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