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Dessert

Black Cake

A dense fruit cake made with browned flour, butter, sugar, eggs, raisins, currants, spices, molasses, brandy, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Black 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 the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until creamy.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs well, then stir them into the butter mixture alternately with the browned flour.

  4. Gradually add the dredged raisins, currants, cloves, cinnamon, mace, grated nutmeg, molasses, and brandy.

Fill and bake

  1. In a prepared mold, place a layer of batter, followed by several slices of citron, and repeat until the mold is filled.

  2. Bake for 4 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Browned flour
Provides the structure that holds the heavy batter together as it bakes.
Butter
Creams with the sugar to add richness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the color of the cake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm crumb.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.

The step that matters

Filling the mold in layers. Alternating batter and citron slices spreads the fruit through the cake. Dredging the raisins and currants in flour keeps them from sinking to the bottom during baking.

Swap the currant

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

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

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

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