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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense, spiced cake made with raisins, currants, citron, spices, and brandy.

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

Make the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar, butter, and eggs until well combined.

  3. Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Stir in the raisins, currants, and citron.

  5. Add the grated nutmeg, cloves, and allspice, mixing well.

  6. Pour in the brandy and mix until smooth.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Bake for 2 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  3. While the cake is still warm, pour over it ½ pint of wine.

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

Flour
Forms the main structure as its proteins set during baking.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the crumb as they cook.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. A dense fruit batter can look set on top while the centre is still raw. Testing the centre with a toothpick confirms the cake has baked through before it is removed from the oven.

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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