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Dessert

Rich Plum Cake

A rich cake made with flour, sugar, currants, candied lemon peel, brandy, eggs, and spices, baked and iced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Frances Crawford · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rich Plum Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Add a quarter of a pound of citron, two ounces of candied lemon peel, the same of orange peel, and two glasses of brandy.

  2. Beat the batter to a cream with your hand.

  3. Beat in the sugar a quarter of an hour.

  4. Beat the whites of the eggs to a strong finish, and mix them with the sugar and batter.

  5. Beat the yolks for at least half an hour, and mix them with the cake.

  6. Add the flour and spices, keep beating until the oven is ready.

  7. Add the brandy.

  8. Add the currants, almonds, and sweetmeats.

Prepare the hoop and bake

  1. Tie three sheets of paper around the bottom of your hoop to keep it from running out.

  2. Rub the hoop with butter, put the batter in, and after it has risen, put paper on the top.

  3. Bake for three hours.

  4. Test with a knife; if it comes out clean, it is baked enough.

  5. Some people put the sweetmeats in three layers between the cake, but this depends on taste.

Ice and dry

  1. Ice it well when cold with sugar mixed with white of egg, and dry in a cool oven or before a fire.

  2. It must be iced twice over.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

651Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
124 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Macenot in our table0
Cakenot 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 Frances Crawford. 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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Currant + macetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,791 recipes

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

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites beaten to a strong foam add lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb once baked.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, beaten with the batter, helps create a light, creamy texture.
Currants
Add fruit sweetness and moisture to the crumb.
Almonds
Add richness and a nutty flavor and texture to the cake.
Brandy (in the method)
Adds aroma and flavor to the batter.

The step that matters

Beat the whites and yolks separately. Whites beaten to a stable foam trap air that lifts the batter, while yolks beaten long enough blend smoothly into the mixture. Skipping either step leaves the cake dense.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, currant, lemon, almond, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, currant, lemon, almond, egg. 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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