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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A spiced fruit cake with raisins, figs, citron, almonds, and a blend of ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, mace, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

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

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

  2. Beat the eggs separately until frothy.

  3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  4. In a separate bowl, mix the sifted flour and spices.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, then fold in the eggs.

  2. Stir in the raisins, figs, citron, and almonds.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven 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. Flour + raisintop 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. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps it stay light and fluffy.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as it sets.
Raisins
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness to the finished cake.
Figs
Add moisture and chewy texture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the eggs after adding the flour mixture. Overmixing once the flour is in develops gluten and can make the cake tough. Fold gently, just until the ingredients are combined, so the batter keeps the air from creaming and the crumb stays tender.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, raisin, fig, almond, egg. 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 fruit cake recipes

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

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