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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A baked cake made with sugar, butter, sweet milk, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, raisins, currants, nutmeg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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White Fruit Cake

Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sweet milk and eggs, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda and cream of tartar, then add to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the raisins, currants, and nutmeg.

  6. Gradually add flour until the batter is quite stiff.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake slowly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  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. Raisin + curranttop 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 add richness, tenderness and a fine crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acid that activates the baking soda, producing lift and a lighter texture.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch structure that holds the cake together.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the batter is quite stiff. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the consistency and avoid overmixing, which can toughen the cake. The batter should be stiff enough to hold the fruit evenly suspended rather than sinking to the bottom of the pan.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, cream, raisin, nutmeg. 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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