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Mrs. Walker's Fruit Cake

"This is a fruit cake for people who do not normally like fruit cake. If you happen to already like fruit cake, you will love this. Honestly, it is the best fruit cake I have ever tasted. It was handed down to me by a dear old lady who has now gone home to be with the Lord."

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Mrs. Walker's Fruit Cake

Why it works: Vanilla and pineapple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Mrs. Walker's Fruit Cake

1 9-inch tube cake
Prep20 min
Cook1 hr 15 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1103Calories
25 gProtein
41 gFat
164 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pecans1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)196
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Cherry1 cup (138g)87
Pineapple1 cup chunks (165g)82
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Cakenot in our table0
Puddingnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Vanilla + pineappletop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Vanilla + pecanstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pineapple + pecanstop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, vanilla, pineapple, pecans):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, vanilla, pineapple, pecans. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.