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Dessert

Spiced Fig Cake

A layered cake with spiced batter, figs, and frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spiced Fig 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter until soft and light.

  3. Gradually mix in the sugar.

  4. Add part of the milk and flour.

  5. Mix in the beaten egg yolks and whites.

  6. Divide the batter into three pans: two for the yellow cake and one for the spiced layer.

  7. Add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and vanilla to the spiced layer.

Prepare the figs

  1. Chop the figs.

  2. Simmer the figs in a pan with a little water until tender.

  3. Dry the figs off.

Make the frosting and assemble

  1. Boil ⅔ cup of sugar with enough water to dissolve until it thickens.

  2. Beat the egg whites until very light.

  3. Gradually add the sugar syrup, beating continuously.

  4. Spread a thin layer of frosting on the cake.

  5. Add figs.

  6. Layer more frosting.

  7. Assemble the cake with the spiced layer between the yellow layers.

  8. Reserve enough frosting to cover the top.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a soft, light crumb and rich flavor.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed with the liquid and eggs.
Eggs
Add structure, richness and moisture, and help bind the batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender texture when creamed with butter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Figs
Add moisture, natural sweetness and a soft, jammy texture to the spiced layer.

The step that matters

Gradually add the sugar syrup, beating continuously. Pouring hot syrup in too quickly or without constant beating can deflate the whipped egg whites and leave the frosting runny or grainy. Steady beating lets the syrup cook the whites into a stable, glossy meringue-style frosting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, lemon, cinnamon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, lemon, cinnamon. 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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