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Dessert

Rich Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, raisins, candied citron, almonds, figs, cream nuts, spices, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Rich Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Cut the fruit into small pieces, but not too fine.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Stir in the flour and mix until combined.

  4. Fold in the raisins, citron, almonds, figs, cream nuts, and spices.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  6. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter last.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and smooth the top.

  2. Bake for 3 hours 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. 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. Almond + figtop 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten its structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich texture.
All-purpose flour
Its proteins set during baking, giving the cake its structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, even crumb when creamed with butter.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor to the fruit and batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lightens the cake. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the batter and leaves a dense cake.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Peachfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, raisin, almond, cream. 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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White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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