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Dessert

Fruit Cake By Measure

A dense, spiced fruit cake made with raisins, currants, citron, molasses, and eggs, baked for 2 to 2½ hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Fruit Cake By Measure

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  2. Add the grated nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and mace, and mix well.

  3. Stir in the molasses and sour milk.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks, grape juice, and mix again.

  5. Fold in the sifted flour and beaten egg whites.

  6. Dissolve the baking soda and stir it in.

  7. Toss the fruits with 2 tablespoons of flour, then fold them into the batter.

Bake

  1. Butter a baking pan lined with buttered parchment paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 2 to 2½ hours, or until done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites add richness, and the whites help lift and structure the batter.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds fat for a tender crumb.
Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep caramel flavour.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the cake rises and stays tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Raisins
Add chewy moisture and sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake until fully done. A long, low bake lets the dense fruit batter cook through and set the crumb; pulling it early can leave the centre gummy.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, raisin, molasses, milk, 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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