Skip to main content
Dessert

Black Cake, or New England Wedding Cake

A dense fruit cake made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, raisins, currants, spices, wine, brandy, rose water, lemon brandy, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Black Cake, or New England Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Mix the butter and sugar until creamy.

  3. Sift in the spices and beat the eggs until light.

  4. Gradually stir in the fruit, ensuring it is well floured.

  5. Butter sheets of paper and line one large pan or two smaller ones.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer slices of citron, then a layer of the mixture, repeating until the pan is full.

  2. Bake for 4 to 5 hours, depending on thickness, in a steady oven.

  3. Let the cake cool gradually in the oven.

  4. Ice the cake once it is thoroughly cold.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Beaten until light, they add structure and lift to the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cake and helps give it a fine texture.
Flour
Coats the fruit so it stays suspended in the batter, and sets the cake's structure.
Raisins
Provide chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Citron
Layered through the pan, it adds a candied citrus aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Baking low and slow until fully cooked. A dense fruit cake this thick needs a long, steady bake so the centre sets without the outside burning. Cooling gradually in the oven then reduces cracking from sudden temperature change.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, raisin, wine, brandy. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipes