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Dessert

Eggless White Fruit Cake

A moist, egg‑free cake made with pineapple, raisins, citron, almonds, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Eggless White 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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a bowl, rub the fruit and nuts together with 1 tablespoon of flour.

  3. Sift 1 teaspoon of baking powder with 2 cups of flour.

Mix and bake

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in 1 tablespoon of hot water and mix it into the batter.

  2. Combine all ingredients and mix well.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to a tender crumb and flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic fruit and sugar to help the cake rise and brown.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moisture.
Pineapple
Adds moisture and fruity acidity to the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in hot water before mixing. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly distributed through the batter, or pockets of it can leave soapy, bitter spots and uneven rising. It needs to be mixed in promptly so it reacts while the batter is still airy.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, raisin, almond, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, raisin, almond, 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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