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Dessert

Fruit and Nut Cake. Unsurpassed

A cake made with sugar, butter, flour, eggs, raisins, currants, ground citron, blanched almonds, and rose extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 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 ↓

Fruit and Nut Cake. Unsurpassed

4 medium sized loaves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Combine 1⅓ cup sugar, ⅔ cup butter, 1⅓ cup flour, 6 eggs, 4 cups (1⅓ lb.) seeded raisins, 3 cups (1 lb.) currants, 1½ cup (½ lb.) ground citron, ¾ cup blanched almonds, ground, ¼-½ teaspoon rose extract, according to strength (rose leaves in their season).

  2. Mix fruit with part of the flour, add nuts.

  3. Cream butter with a little of the flour.

  4. Beat together the sugar and yolks of eggs until very light, add with extract to creamed butter, and beat well.

  5. Whip whites of eggs with a pinch of salt to stiff froth.

  6. Add fruit and nuts to yolk mixture.

Bake

  1. Fold in beaten whites and remainder of flour.

  2. Bake in well oiled tin 1½-2½ hrs. in moderate and slow oven, covering when necessary.

  3. The cake may be steamed 3-4 hrs. and baked ½-1 hr.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

691Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 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).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites add lightness and rise.
Butter
Fat creamed with sugar and flour gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Starch and gluten set the structure so the heavy fruit is held in the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and, creamed with yolks, helps give a light, fine texture.
Blanched almonds
Ground nuts add richness, body and a nutty flavour to the crumb.
Seeded raisins (in the method)
Dried fruit adds sweetness and moisture that stays in the finished cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten whites. Stiff whites trap air that lifts the batter in the oven. Stirring vigorously or too long deflates them, leaving a dense cake.

“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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