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Dessert

Porcupine Cake

A sponge cake soaked in brandy and raisin wine, topped with sugar, custard, and blanched almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Porcupine Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the cake

  1. Place the sponge cake in a deep glass dish.

  2. Pour the brandy and raisin wine around the cake.

  3. Allow the cake to soak up the liquids.

Finish and decorate

  1. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the soaked cake.

  2. Pour rich custard over the cake.

  3. Decorate the top and sides with blanched almonds, placing the small ends up.

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. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Brandy + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,969 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cake
Forms the base that soaks up the liquids and holds the custard.
Brandy
Adds liquid and a strong aroma that soaks into the sponge.
Raisin wine
Adds moisture and sweetness that soften the sponge.
Rich custard
Adds moisture and richness that cover and sink into the soaked cake.
Blanched almonds
Provide a crisp, nutty decorative finish on the top and sides.

The step that matters

Allow the cake to soak up the liquids. The sponge must absorb the brandy and wine fully before sugar and custard are added. If it is too dry, the liquids pool at the bottom of the dish and the cake stays patchy and tough in texture, while overly saturated sponge can collapse.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, raisin, wine, sugar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Cocoafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, raisin, wine, sugar. 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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