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Dessert

Bride-Cake

A moist almond and candied fruit cake flavored with brandy, mace, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter with your hand until smooth.

  3. Beat in the sugar for 15 minutes.

  4. Beat the egg whites until frothy.

  5. Mix the beaten egg whites with the sugar and butter.

  6. Beat the egg yolks for at least 30 minutes.

  7. Add the beaten egg yolks to the mixture.

  8. Gradually mix in the flour, mace, and nutmeg, beating well until combined.

  9. Add the brandy.

  10. Fold in the currants and almonds gently.

Assemble and bake

  1. Grease a cake pan with butter.

  2. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.

  3. Pour in half of the batter.

  4. Layer with sweetmeats.

  5. Add the remaining batter.

  6. Add more sweetmeats.

  7. 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
Whipped whites give lift and the yolks add richness and structure to the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the cake.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter and fruit together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a tender, lightly aerated crumb when creamed.
Sweet almonds
Add nutty flavor and a rich, slightly chewy texture throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the batter and the candied fruit.

The step that matters

Covering the cake while it bakes. The cake bakes for 3 hours, so the top can brown too quickly. Covering it with paper slows browning so the inside can cook through without the crust darkening too far.

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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