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Dessert

General Lee Fruit Cake

A fruit cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, flour, spices, raisins, currants, citron, almonds, and flavored with brandy and Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice 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 ↓

General Lee Fruit 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Break the eggs and beat the yolks and whites separately.

  2. Mix the sugar into the yolks until creamy.

  3. Cream the butter and gradually mix it into the yolk and sugar mixture.

  4. Add the beaten egg whites, brandy, Madeira wine, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, mace, and cloves. Stir well.

  5. Slowly add the raisins, currants, citron, and almonds alternately, mixing thoroughly.

Bake and ice

  1. Grease a cake mold, line the bottom with paper, and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for four hours.

  3. Ice the cake fifteen minutes after removing it from the oven.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites are beaten separately, and the whites add lift and structure to the batter.
Butter
Creamed butter adds richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a creamy base when mixed with the yolks.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the heavy fruit and nut batter together as it bakes.
Raisins
Add moisture, chewiness, and sweetness throughout the cake.
Blanched almonds
Add body, texture, and a nutty flavor to the crumb.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow for the full time. A dense, heavily fruited batter needs long, gentle heat so the center sets fully before the outside over-browns. Pulling the cake early leaves it gummy in the middle.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, brandy, madeira wine, 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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