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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, egg whites, coconut, walnuts, almonds, and sliced citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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White Fruit Cake

Why it works: Walnut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 993 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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 batter

  1. Cream together the butter and granulated sugar.

  2. Add the sweet milk and mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the sifted flour and baking powder.

  4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  6. Stir in the grated coconut, chopped walnuts, chopped almonds, and sliced citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Walnut + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together993 recipes

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

  2. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Coconut + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Beaten stiff and folded in, they add lift and a light, airy structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a tender texture.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a crunchy texture throughout the crumb.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Stiffly beaten whites hold air that makes the cake light. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the cake bakes up dense rather than airy.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Cashew nutfits better
  2. Macadamia nutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, coconut, almond. 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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