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Dessert

Black Cake for Weddings

A rich fruit cake made with butter, flour, sugar, raisins, citron, spices, wine, brandy, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Black Cake for Weddings

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 the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs, beaten separately.

  3. Mix in the brandy.

  4. Mix in the wine.

  5. Mix in the citron.

  6. Mix in the raisins.

  7. Rub the fruit in flour.

  8. Add the floured fruit to the mixture.

  9. Dissolve the baking soda in a portion of the wine.

  10. Add the dissolved baking soda to the batter.

  11. Soak the spices in the brandy overnight.

Bake

  1. Bake for 4 hours at 350°F (175°C).

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 rich, tender body.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the heavy fruit and batter together.
Raisins
Add moisture, sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the wine's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Brandy
Carries the spices' aroma and adds depth of flavour while helping keep the cake moist.

The step that matters

Adding the dissolved baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid to react, and the wine supplies it. Dissolving it first in wine and mixing it in promptly lets the gas form in the batter so it rises evenly rather than leaving dense or bitter patches.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, raisin, egg, nutmeg, 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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