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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A fruit cake made with currants, dates, raisins, citron, spices, brandy, butter, brown sugar, eggs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Wedding 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 the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the egg yolks, part of the flour, spices, and part of the brandy.

  3. Mix in the remaining flour, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Gently fold in the fruit that has been lightly coated in flour.

Bake

  1. Bake in a lined wooden box for 5 to 6 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and binding; beaten whites lighten the batter and help it rise.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavour.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the batter and fruit.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in, while stirring hard would deflate it and leave a denser cake.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (currant, raisin, cinnamon, mace, allspice, clove, nutmeg):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, raisin, cinnamon, mace, allspice, clove, nutmeg. 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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