Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Fig Cake
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 cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the powdered sugar and eggs together until creamy.
Stir in the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Pour the batter into a square tin or jelly-cake pans.
Make the fig icing
Beat the whites of 2 eggs with enough powdered sugar and a few drops of lemon juice to make a stiff icing.
Mix the chopped figs, raisins, citron, and lemon juice into the icing.
Assemble and serve
Spread the icing on the cake and layer with another cake if desired.
Sift powdered sugar over the top before serving.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together737 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together763 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Beaten eggs and egg whites add structure and lift to the cake and stiffen the icing.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cake and icing, and its fine texture helps the batter and icing blend smoothly.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and stabilizes the egg foam, helping the cake rise evenly.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Figs
- Add moisture, sweetness and fruity flavor to the icing filling.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites into a stiff icing. Egg whites must be beaten with sugar until they hold stiff peaks; under-beaten whites produce a runny icing that will not hold up when spread, while over-beating can make it dry and grainy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, cream, fig, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Datesfits better
- Apricotfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, cream, fig, raisin. 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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