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Dessert

Dark Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with brown sugar, lard or butter, raisins, currants, molasses, eggs, buttermilk, spices, baking soda, citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,070 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Dark Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the brown sugar and lard or butter.

  2. Add the eggs, molasses, cloves, and cinnamon, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the raisins, currants, citron, and buttermilk with the dissolved baking soda.

  4. Gradually mix in enough flour to make a stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into small dishes lined with buttered paper or one large dish.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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 + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 moisture, and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Lard or butter
Creams with the sugar to add fat, tenderness and a rich texture.
Eggs
Provide structure and binding that hold the batter together as it sets.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly acidic sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce lift and a lighter crumb.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda before adding it. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the acidic buttermilk and molasses. Unevenly distributed soda can leave soapy or bitter patches and uneven rising.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, raisin, currant, molasses, egg, buttermilk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, raisin, currant, molasses, egg, buttermilk. 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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