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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs, spices, wine, molasses, citron, raisins, and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Dredge the prepared fruit with enough flour to coat it thoroughly.

  2. Brown the flour slightly, being careful not to scorch it.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter.

  2. Add the sugar mixed with spices.

  3. Incorporate the beaten yolks of eggs.

  4. Add the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  5. Add the flour.

  6. Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water.

  7. Add the dissolved baking soda to the mixture.

  8. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered tin pan with straight sides.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for at least four hours.

  2. Let the cake cool in the oven overnight for better flavor.

  3. Ice the cake the next morning.

  4. Dredge the outside with flour.

  5. Wipe the cake with a towel to help the icing stick.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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.
Eggs
Set during baking to give structure, and add moisture and richness.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb through its fat content.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a slight acidity that activates the baking soda.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Bake low and long. A dense fruit batter needs the full baking time at a moderate heat so the centre sets fully. Too hot an oven browns the outside before the middle is cooked through.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice. 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.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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