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Dessert

A Small Fruit Cake

A small fruit cake made with sugar, butter, molasses, eggs, dried fruit, nuts, spices, and lemon essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

A Small 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).

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  2. Add the molasses and dissolved baking soda, mixing well.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Stir in the citron, raisins, currants, almonds, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.

  5. Gradually add the sifted flour, mixing until combined.

  6. Flavor with lemon essence.

  7. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for one hour.

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

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

  2. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich texture.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and the whites are folded in to lighten the batter.
Sifted flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to help the cake rise and darken slightly.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color to the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps tenderize it when creamed with butter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites gently. Beaten whites hold air that lightens the batter. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a denser cake that rises less in the oven.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, molasses, egg, raisin, almond, nutmeg. 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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