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Dessert

Village Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with butter, brown sugar, flour, spices, eggs, figs, raisins, currants, citron, almonds, molasses, baking soda, and rose water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Village Fruit 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

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

  3. Gradually add the browned flour, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then add them to the mixture.

  5. Fold in the figs, raisins, currants, citron, and chopped almonds.

  6. Dissolve the baking soda in the black molasses and add it to the batter.

  7. Finally, stir in the rose-water until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1.5 to 2 hours, 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

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

  5. Clove + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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 give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses notes deepen the cake's colour and flavour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Black molasses
Adds dark colour, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Almonds
Add crunch and a nutty richness that contrasts with the soft crumb.

The step that matters

Judging when the cake is done. This cake is dense and heavy with fruit, so the centre can stay wet even when the outside looks set. Testing with a toothpick in the centre confirms the batter has fully baked before cooling.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figthe original
  4. Lemonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, egg. 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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