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Dessert

Fruit Cake. No. I.

A dense, spiced fruit cake with walnuts, raisins, currants, figs, citron, and a brandy-wine glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Fruit Cake. No. I.

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 batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the cinnamon, allspice, mace, and cloves; mix well.

  4. Stir in the pounded walnuts and flour.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the brandy, wine, and salt; add to the mixture.

Add the fruit and bake

  1. Fold in the raisins, currants, citron, and figs.

  2. Dust all the fruit with flour before adding.

  3. Mix in the flour with cream of tartar and baking soda.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 2½ hours.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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.
Brown sugar
Creamed with butter for sweetness and moisture, and adds a molasses-like depth.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter and fruit together as it bakes.
Walnuts
Add body and a toasty, slightly bitter note that balances the sweet fruit.
Raisins
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so baking soda can react and lift the cake.

The step that matters

Dusting the fruit with flour before adding. Flour coats the sticky fruit so it stays suspended in the batter instead of sinking to the bottom during baking.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, clove, walnut, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, clove, walnut, flour. 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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White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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