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Dessert

Scotch Plum Cake

A rich cake made with sugar, currants, raisins, almonds, butter, cream, yeast, eggs, spices, and sherry or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Scotch Plum Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat one-half pound of blanched almonds with rose water until beaten.

  2. Mix the almond mixture with the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, currants, raisins, mace, cloves, nutmeg, lemon peel).

  3. Melt two pounds of butter in a pint of cream, then add a glass of sherry and one of brandy.

  4. Beat twelve eggs, separating yolks and whites, and add one-half pint of good yeast.

  5. Strain the butter mixture into the dry ingredients.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the batter for a full hour.

  2. Add plenty of chips of citron, lemon, and orange candy to the batter.

Bake

  1. Butter the hoop (baking pan).

  2. Bake in a good hot oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

804Calories
21 gProtein
24 gFat
125 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Macenot 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 Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog]. 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, with whites adding lift when beaten.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning in the oven.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy texture through the cake.

The step that matters

Beat the batter for a full hour. Long beating incorporates air and develops the batter's structure, which helps the cake rise and keeps its crumb even. Under-beating leaves a dense cake with uneven texture.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, currant, raisin, almond, butter, cream, flour. 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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