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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense, spiced cake made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, molasses, sour milk, brandy, spices, and dried fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

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. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  3. Add the eggs, molasses, and sour milk; mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cloves.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

Add the fruit and bake

  1. Fold in the raisins, currants, and citron, dusting them with flour to prevent sticking.

  2. Pour the batter into a greased 6‑quart pan.

  3. Bake for 3 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as the batter sets.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the cake's deep color.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to help the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the fruit. Fruit dusted with flour is less likely to sink to the bottom of the batter, because the flour gives it some grip in the batter. Stirring too vigorously after adding the fruit can also overwork the batter and make the cake dense.

“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.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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