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Dessert

Eggless Fruit Cake

A moist fruit cake made without eggs, using sour milk and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Eggless Fruit Cake

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 ↓

Eggless 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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add it to the creamed mixture.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing well.

  5. Fold in the chopped citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts and lightens the batter.
Baking powder
Provides additional lift so the cake rises evenly in the oven.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb while adding moisture.
Butter
Creaming it with sugar traps air that helps give a tender, fine texture.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a caramel note while helping the crumb stay soft.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises without pockets or a bitter, soapy patch.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, butter, cinnamon, 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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