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Dessert

Rich Plum Cake

A moist, fruit‑laden cake made with butter, eggs, flour, currants, raisins, candied peel, almonds, lemon rind, and mixed spice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Rich Plum Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the butter to a cream with a wooden spoon.

  2. Gradually mix in the egg yolks and sugar, then add the flour and salt.

  3. Stir in the currants, raisins, candied peel, mixed spice, almonds, and lemon rind.

  4. Continue beating for at least 15 minutes to ensure lightness.

  5. Fold in the egg whites just 2-3 minutes before finishing the mixing.

  6. If needed, add a little milk to moisten the mixture without making it sloppy.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a buttered cake tin lined with buttered paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 2½ hours.

  3. Check doneness with a skewer; it should come out clean.

  4. Carefully remove the cake from the tin and cool on a sieve.

  5. Wrap the cooled cake in a thick cloth and store until needed.

  6. The day before serving, cover with white icing and decorate with holly leaves and berries.

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.

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 + raisintop 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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter; whisked whites add air for lightness.
Fine flour
Forms the cake's structure once heated, setting the crumb.
Fine white sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps aerate the creamed butter.
Currants
Add fruitiness and moisture to the crumb as the cake bakes.
Candied peel
Adds concentrated citrus sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whisked whites hold air that gives lightness. Folding gently and adding them late keeps that air from collapsing, so the cake rises well in the oven.

Swap the currant

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

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

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