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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A rich cake made with flour, butter, candied fruit, dried fruit, almonds, eggs, spices, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Wedding 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 fruit and nuts

  1. Wash, pick, and dry the currants.

  2. Cut the cherries into moderate-sized pieces.

  3. Slice the candied peel into thin shreds.

  4. Blanch and pound the almonds or cut them into very small pieces.

  5. Crush the flavored sugar to powder.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream the butter with a wooden spoon or by hand.

  2. Gradually add the sugar, flour, and eggs, mixing thoroughly.

  3. Work in the rest of the ingredients little by little, beating the mixture after each addition.

  4. Beat the cake for about 45 minutes.

Bake

  1. Line a cake tin with double folds of buttered paper.

  2. Pour in the mixture and place it on a metal baking sheet with 12 folds of paper underneath and 4 or 5 on top to prevent burning.

  3. Bake in a moderately heated 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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the heavy batter and fruit together as it bakes.
Unsalted butter
Creamed with the sugar to trap air and adds richness and tenderness.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the crumb as the cake bakes.
Dried currants
Add chewy moisture and sweetness throughout the cake.
Dried cherries
Add chewy moisture and sweetness throughout the cake.
Almonds
Add richness, texture, and a nutty flavor to the crumb.

The step that matters

Beating the cake for about 45 minutes. Long beating incorporates air and develops the batter's structure, so the cake rises evenly and has a fine, even crumb. Stopping early can leave a dense texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, lemon, orange, almond, egg, 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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