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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake with a sweet white batter and a spiced gold batter, studded with figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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 batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sweet milk and flour.

  4. Fold in the egg whites.

  5. In another bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, ¾ cup batter, 1½ teaspoons baking powder, and 1½ cups flour.

  6. Add the beaten egg yolks, whole egg, allspice, and cinnamon to the gold mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Bake the white batter in two long pie tins.

  2. Layer half the gold batter in one pie tin.

  3. Place the floured fig halves so they touch.

  4. Top with the remaining gold batter.

  5. Bake.

Layer and serve

  1. Layer the cakes with frosting while warm.

  2. Place the gold between the white layers and cover with frosting.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

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

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

  4. Allspice + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites add lift and structure, while yolks enrich the gold layer and add richness.
Butter
Softened butter creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the batters rise and become light.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown and stay moist.
Figs
Add fruity sweetness and moisture to the gold layer as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake the white batter in two long pie tins. Batter spread too thin or too thick bakes unevenly, so the layers may dry out or stay gummy in the centre. Even depth in each tin helps the layers bake through at the same rate.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

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