Skip to main content
Dessert

Plum Cake

A baked plum cake with raisins, currants, citron, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plum Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and molasses.

  3. Add the sweet milk and beaten eggs, mixing well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water and add it to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the mace, allspice, and cinnamon.

  6. Gradually add flour until the batter is stiff but can be stirred easily.

  7. Beat the batter well until light.

  8. Fold in the raisins, currants, and citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with molasses to give the cake richness and a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the cake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake, setting it as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gradually adding the flour. Adding flour in small amounts while stirring keeps the batter smooth and stiff enough to hold the fruit. Too much flour at once can make the cake dense or tough. The batter should be stiff but still easy to stir.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, molasses, milk, egg, allspice, cinnamon, brandy):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, milk, egg, allspice, cinnamon, brandy. 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.

More plum cake recipes

Rich 19Pound 4 See all 152 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipes