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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A baked cake made with butter, sugars, flour, eggs, spices, fruit, raisins, currants, and fruit preserves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream one pound butter.

  2. Add one pound granulated sugar, one-half pound light brown sugar, and yolks of twelve eggs well beaten; beat well together.

  3. Add two round teaspoons cloves, four round teaspoons cinnamon, and one nutmeg.

  4. Add one tumbler grape or currant jelly, one tumbler molasses, and one-half tumbler currant juice.

  5. Add one pound flour sifted with two level teaspoons soda.

  6. Add whites of twelve eggs beaten stiff.

Add the fruit and bake

  1. In a large chopping bowl, combine four packages raisins washed, dried, and lightly chopped; two packages currants washed and dried; one pound citron cut in strips; one-half pound nut meats cut fine; one-half pound flour thoroughly mixed with the fruit.

  2. Turn cake mixture over the fruit and mix all together with a chopping knife.

  3. Bake in two pans for four hours, keeping pans covered after the first hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

771Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
129 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 11 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Nutnot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0
Currantnot 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 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. See the original page.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Yolks and whites are added separately, adding structure and lift to the batter.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once it sets in the oven.
Soda
Reacts with the molasses and acidic juices to help the cake rise and darken.
Molasses (in the method)
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Raisins
Add chewy moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake in two pans for four hours, keeping pans covered after the first hour.. A long, slow bake lets the heavy batter set through without drying the outside; covering the pans after the first hour keeps the crust from over-browning before the centre is cooked.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

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

More fruit cake recipes

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

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