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Dessert

Black Cake

A dense fruit cake made with browned flour, butter, brown sugar, eggs, raisins, currants, spices, molasses, brandy, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Black 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 batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy.

  3. Beat the eggs well.

  4. Gradually stir the beaten eggs into the butter and sugar mixture, alternating with the browned flour.

  5. Add the dredged raisins, currants, cloves, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, molasses, and brandy, mixing well.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a mold, place a layer of batter, followed by several slices of citron, and repeat until the mold is filled.

  2. Bake for 4 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Browned flour
Provides the structure of the cake batter and a toasty, deep flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, carrying flavour through the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and give it structure and lift as they are beaten in.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the cake.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and a rich, deep colour.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the batter and adds moisture and caramel notes.

The step that matters

Layering the batter and citron. Spreading the batter and citron in even layers keeps the fruit distributed through the cake, so it does not sink to the bottom during the long bake.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, raisin, clove, cinnamon. 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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