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Dessert

Wedding Fruit Cake

A dense, spiced fruit cake baked for several hours, containing raisins, currants, citron, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Wedding 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

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

  2. Mix currants, raisins, and citron with sifted flour.

  3. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  4. Beat the eggs until very light.

Make the batter

  1. Alternately stir the eggs and flour into the butter and sugar mixture, stirring vigorously.

  2. Gradually add the spices and brandy.

  3. Fold in the raisins and fruit mixture.

  4. Stir hard for 10 minutes.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 4 to 5 hours.

  2. Ice the cake the next day.

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. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps cream with butter to hold air for lightness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and lighten the batter when beaten until very light.
Raisins
Add moisture, sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and a dark color to the cake.

The step that matters

Stir hard for 10 minutes. Vigorous mixing develops gluten in the flour, which gives the cake its structure. Too little mixing leaves the batter weak, while the fruit must be folded in evenly so it does not sink.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Currantthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, molasses, egg, brandy, raisin. 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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