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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, raisins, candied citron, almonds, figs, cream nuts, brandy, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Add the sifted flour and mix well.

  3. Incorporate the beaten egg yolks, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Cut the fruit into small pieces and add to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the brandy and spices.

Bake

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

  2. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  3. Bake for about 2 to 3 hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Almond + figtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 lift and a lighter crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
Flour
Its proteins set during baking, giving the cake its structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, even crumb when creamed with butter.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and contributes some moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Baking low and slow until a toothpick comes out clean. A long, low-temperature bake lets the dense batter and fruit cook through evenly without over-browning the outside. Checking for a clean toothpick confirms the center is set, since underbaked fruit cake stays gummy and crumbly.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

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