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Dessert

Christmas Cake

A fruit cake made with butter, raisins, currants, mixed peel, almonds, brown sugar, brandy, coffee, spices, flour, baking powder, vanilla, sour milk, and crystallized cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Christmas Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

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

  3. Mix in the brandy, coffee, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.

  4. Combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.

  5. Fold in the raisins, currants, citron, almonds, orange juice, lemon juice, vanilla, and sour milk.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

  2. Bake for 4 to 5 hours until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses helps the cake stay soft.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dense cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the batter rise and lighten.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
Currants
Add tart sweetness and chewy texture that contrasts with the crumb.

The step that matters

Long, low baking. Baking slowly at 300°F lets heat reach the center gently, so the edges do not dry out before the middle sets. The cake is done when the center is set, which a toothpick test checks, so pulling it early leaves a gummy middle.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, raisin, almond, sugar, brandy, coffee, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, raisin, almond, sugar, brandy, coffee, nutmeg. 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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