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Dessert

Fig Cake

A sweet cake with a fig and raisin filling and frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the confectioners sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sweet milk and beaten egg whites, mixing well.

  4. Stir in the baking powder, vanilla, and sifted flour until combined.

Make the fig filling

  1. For the fig filling, boil the chopped figs, raisins, and sugar with enough water to cover until it reaches a taffy consistency.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg whites until light.

Assemble and ice

  1. Layer the fig filling between the cake layers and pour frosting over the top.

  2. Ice the top with frosting alone.

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. Vanilla + figtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

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

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Fig + raisintop 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

Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, giving the batter and filling a light, airy texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become tender.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake layers together.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and enriches the flavor.
Figs
Provide sweetness, moisture, and body to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and thickens it to a taffy-like consistency as it cooks.

The step that matters

Fold the beaten egg whites into the hot filling off the heat. Beaten egg whites hold air only while they stay unset. Removing the filling from heat first keeps the whites from cooking and deflating, so stirring them in gently keeps the filling light.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Peachfits about as well
  2. Bananafits about as well
  3. Raisinthe original
  4. Apricotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, vanilla, flour, fig. 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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