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Dessert

Sour Cream Fruit Cake

A moist fruit cake made with sour cream, molasses, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Sour Cream 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 oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat eggs and mix in brown sugar, sour cream, and softened butter.

  3. Stir in molasses and salt.

  4. Dissolve baking soda in a small amount of warm water and add to mixture.

  5. Fold in chopped raisins and any optional fruits or nuts.

  6. Add spices and mix well.

  7. Gradually add flour, stirring until just combined.

Bake

  1. Pour batter into greased cake pan and bake for about 45‑50 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.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep caramel flavour to the crumb.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity helps the baking soda react.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a robust sweetness to the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that lifts the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets the crumb as the cake bakes.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Mixing only until just combined keeps the crumb tender rather than tough and dense.

Swap the walnut

The recipe marks walnut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream, butter, molasses, raisin, cinnamon):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, butter, molasses, raisin, 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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