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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, sugar, butter, fruit, nuts, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Margaret · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Fruit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter to a cream.

  2. Break the eggs whole into the mixture one by one, alternately with the flour and milk.

  3. Heat the mixture very well.

  4. Mix in the prepared fruit, essences, and brandy.

  5. Add the baking powder last.

Bake

  1. Pour into greased and lined cake tins.

  2. Bake in a good oven for about two to three hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

978Calories
30 gProtein
33 gFat
143 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 12 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Orange Flower1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Brandynot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Teanot 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 Hamilton, Margaret. 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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Lemon + teatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Orange + teatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together333 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and give the cake its structure as they set in the oven.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives a rich, tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it bakes evenly.
Currants
Add sweetness, chewy texture, and pockets of fruit throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds a warm aroma and flavour to the fruit and batter.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs one by one, alternating with the flour and milk. Adding eggs gradually and alternating them with dry ingredients keeps the butter emulsion stable. If the eggs go in too fast, the batter can curdle, which leads to a heavier, coarser cake.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, brandy, lemon, almond, orange, tea, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, brandy, lemon, almond, orange, tea, milk. 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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