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Dessert

Farmer's Fruit Cake

A moist cake made with dried apples, molasses, brown sugar, and spices, baked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Farmer's Fruit 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.

Prepare the apples

  1. Wash and soak the dried apples in water overnight.

  2. Drain the apples, chop them, and simmer with molasses for 2 hours until absorbed.

Mix and bake

  1. Let the mixture cool, then combine with brown sugar, butter, eggs, milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, spices, lemon zest, lemon juice, citron, and raisins.

  2. Add enough flour to achieve a cake batter consistency.

  3. Pour into a greased pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried apples
Provide bulk and fruity body that softens into the batter when simmered with molasses.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that helps the cake brown.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, reacting with baking soda to aid leavening and balance the sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.

The step that matters

Cooling the apple mixture before combining. Adding the batter ingredients to a hot apple and molasses mixture can start the baking soda reaction too early and cause eggs and butter to separate or curdle, so the mixture should cool first.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, molasses, sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, molasses, sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream. 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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