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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with brown sugar, butter, eggs, flour, raisins, currants, citron, spices, brandy, and baking powder.

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. 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.

Prepare

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

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

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.

  2. Fold in the raisins, currants, and citron until evenly distributed.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  2. While the cake is still warm, pour ½ pint of brandy 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

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness with a toothpick. Baking until a toothpick in the center comes out clean confirms the centre has set. Removing the cake too early can leave it gummy, while leaving it too long dries the crumb.

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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