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Dessert

Easy Christmas Fruit Cake

A moist fruit cake with raisins, orange juice, butter, cream cheese, brown sugar, eggs, orange zest, flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 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 ↓

Easy Christmas Fruit Cake

Oven300°F (160°C)
Timeabout 80 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Warm raisins and orange juice in a saucepan over low heat until liquid is absorbed.

  2. Set aside the raisin mixture.

Make the batter

  1. Beat butter, cream cheese, and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy.

  2. Beat in eggs one at a time.

  3. Stir in orange zest.

  4. Stir again.

  5. Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a separate bowl.

  6. Stir the dry mixture into the batter.

  7. Fold in the raisin mixture.

Bake and cool

  1. Spoon batter into a greased and floured 9‑inch tube pan or bundt pan.

  2. Bake at 300°F (160°C) for about 80 minutes.

  3. Check at 60 minutes with a cake tester or skewer.

  4. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes.

  5. Turn onto a rack to cool completely.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

919Calories
23 gProtein
29 gFat
142 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream Cheese1 oz (28g)99
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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 Wikibooks Cookbook.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Butter + cream cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,747 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness, softened by warming in the orange juice.
Butter
Provides fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Cream cheese
Adds moisture and a dense, tender texture to the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the structure as the cake bakes.
All-purpose flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed with the wet ingredients.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises.

The step that matters

Check doneness at 60 minutes. A long, low bake can dry out or leave the centre underbaked. Testing with a skewer shows whether the centre is set before the cake overcooks.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, butter, cream cheese, sugar, egg, flour, nutmeg. 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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