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Dessert

Rich Bride or Christening Cake

A rich cake made with flour, butter, currants, sugar, spices, eggs, almonds, candied peel, wine, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rich Bride or Christening Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Let the flour be as fine as possible, well dried and sifted.

  2. Wash, pick, and dry the currants before the fire.

  3. Pound and sift the sugar.

  4. Grate the nutmegs.

  5. Pound the spices (mace and cloves).

  6. Thoroughly whisk the eggs, separating whites and yolks.

  7. Pound the almonds with a little orange-flower water.

  8. Cut the candied peel into neat slices.

  9. Mix all prepared ingredients together.

Make the batter

  1. Begin working the butter by hand until it becomes cream-like in consistency.

  2. Stir in the sugar.

  3. Whisk the egg whites to a solid froth.

  4. Mix the frothy whites with the butter and sugar.

  5. Beat the yolks for 10 minutes.

  6. Add the beaten yolks to the flour, nutmegs, mace, and cloves.

  7. Continue beating the whole mixture for 1/2 hour or longer until ready for the oven.

  8. Lightly mix in the currants, almonds, and candied peel with the wine and brandy.

Bake and finish

  1. Line a hoop with buttered paper.

  2. Fill the hoop with the mixture.

  3. Bake the cake in a tolerably quick oven, taking care not to burn it.

  4. If desired, cover the top with a sheet of paper to prevent burning.

  5. To test doneness, plunge a clean knife into the middle; if the blade is not sticky and looks bright, the cake is baked.

  6. Spread a thick layer of almond icing over the cake.

  7. Add another layer of sugar icing on top.

  8. Ornament as desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

122Calories
6 gProtein
6 gFat
4 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 6 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Brandynot in our table0
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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Brandy + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift and yolks add richness and set structure in the crumb.
Butter (in the method)
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake its tender, rich texture.
Sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed with the butter.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Currants (in the method)
Add fruitiness and chewy pockets throughout the crumb.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour while contributing a little moisture.

The step that matters

Beating the batter for half an hour or longer. Long beating incorporates air that the eggs and creamed butter hold, giving the cake its lift. Stopping too early leaves a dense crumb, and the batter must be baked promptly before that air is lost.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, brandy, nutmeg, egg, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against wine, brandy, nutmeg, egg, clove. 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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