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Dessert

Dark Christmas Cake

A dense fruit cake made with almonds, raisins, currants, candied fruit, spices, prune juice, brandy, and eggs.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Dark Christmas Cake

Oven275°F
Timeabout 3 hours

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line greased pans with greased heavy brown paper, except for the bundt pan which should be greased and floured.

  2. Combine nuts and fruit in a very large bowl or roasting pan.

  3. Add 1 cup of flour and toss by hand to coat fruit with flour.

Make the batter

  1. Cream butter well (you can use your electric mixer for this part of the recipe).

  2. Add sugar and beat until fluffy.

  3. Beat in egg yolks.

  4. Transfer mixture to a large bowl.

  5. Sift 5 ½ cups flour with salt, spices and soda and add to creamed mixture alternately with prune juice and brandy. Mix with a wooden spoon.

  6. Add this mixture to the fruit and nuts and blend well.

  7. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mixture.

  8. Measure into prepared pans and press well into the corners.

Bake and cool

  1. Heat oven to 275°F.

  2. Bake cakes in 8×4×3‑inch pans for about 3 hours, in 9×5×3‑inch pans or bundt pans for about 3 h 15 min and in 10‑inch tube pans about 3 ½ h or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.

  3. Let stand in pans a few minutes, then turn out on racks and cool.

  4. Strip off paper and wrap cakes in cheesecloth dampened with brandy and then in foil and store in a cool place.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1055Calories
24 gProtein
21 gFat
202 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 18 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cherry1 cup (138g)87
Pineapple1 cup chunks (165g)82
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Date1 date (24g) medjool66
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Dried Fig1 medium (50g)37
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0
Prunenot in our table0
Brandynot 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.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Almond + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

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

  5. Fig + pineappletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites add richness and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten the dense fruit mixture.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the cake.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a caramel flavor, and helps the cake brown.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the fruit and nuts together in the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic prune juice to help the cake rise and lighten.
Seedless raisins
Add moisture, chewiness and sweetness to the fruit mixture.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow until a toothpick comes out clean. A dense, fruit-heavy batter cooks slowly in the center, so low heat and long baking prevent scorched edges and a raw middle. Test the center rather than relying only on the time.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, raisin, fig, dates, pineapple, flour, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, raisin, fig, dates, pineapple, flour, butter. 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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