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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with brown sugar, butter, eggs, flour, dried fruit, spices, brandy, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

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

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

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the flour and baking powder.

  4. Fold in the raisins, currants, citron, grated nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.

  5. Pour in the brandy and mix until well combined.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. While the cake is still warm, pour the wine over it.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for lightness.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter bakes and sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a deeper, molasses-like flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Checking doneness with a toothpick. Fruit-heavy batters are dense and can look set outside while the center is still wet. Testing the center with a toothpick confirms the cake is fully baked, since underbaked batter collapses and turns gummy.

Swap the currant

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

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

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