Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake with a butter‑sugar base and a fig, cinnamon, and allspice filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Fig 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and ⅓ cup butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg whites and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine 2 teaspoons baking powder, ⅓ cup water, and 1½ cups flour.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, mixing until smooth.

Make the gold part

  1. For the gold part, cream together ½ cup sugar and ⅓ cup butter.

  2. Stir in ¼ cup water, ¼ teaspoon baking powder, and ¾ cup flour until combined.

  3. Add the egg yolks, chopped figs, cinnamon, and allspice, mixing well.

Bake

  1. Layer the gold part on top of the first mixture in a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes 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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Fig + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Fig + allspicetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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
Egg whites add structure and lift, while yolks add richness and tenderness to the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, helping the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
Figs
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the gold layer.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, flour, fig, 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.

More fig cake recipes

Filling 13Ribbon 4 See all 144 →

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes