Why it works: Coconut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓
White Fruit Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Line a deep pan with greased paper.
Make the batter
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.
Fold in the citron, shredded coconut, and almonds.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 2 hours.
Once cooled, ice the cake with coconut icing.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,093 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Creamed with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Citron
- Candied fruit that adds chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
- Almonds
- Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft crumb.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time. Beating each egg in fully before the next keeps the butter and sugar emulsified. A broken emulsion can make the batter curdle and bake up heavy and dense.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, almond):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, almond. 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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