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Dessert

Fig Cake

A sweet cake with figs, raisins, and spices, topped with orange-flavored icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

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 fruit

  1. Chop the figs and raisins.

  2. Pour ½ cup warm water over the fruit.

  3. Let the mixture stand on the back of the stove while you mix the cake.

Make the batter

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

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, alternating with the boiling water.

  5. Fold in the fruit mixture.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the icing, mix the powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon boiling water, grated orange rind, and enough orange juice to achieve a stiff consistency.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Eggs
Add structure, moisture, and richness that help bind the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake rises.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps create a soft, tender texture when creamed with butter.
Figs
Contribute moisture, natural sweetness, and chewy texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Alternating the dry ingredients with the liquid. Adding flour in portions and mixing only until combined limits gluten development, keeping the cake tender rather than tough. Overmixing at this stage makes the crumb dense and chewy.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Lemonfits less well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

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