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Dessert

Fig Gmke

A layered cake with white and golden batters and figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Gmke

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.

Prepare the white batter

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

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

  3. Add the sweet milk, flour, and baking powder, and mix well. Fold in the egg whites gently.

Make the gold batter

  1. For the gold part, cream together 1 cup sugar and ¾ cup butter. Add ½ cup sweet milk, 1½ teaspoons baking powder, and 1½ cups flour, mixing well.

  2. Incorporate the 7 egg yolks, 1 whole egg, allspice, and cinnamon.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour the white batter into two long pie tins.

  2. In one pie tin, layer half of the gold batter and place the halved figs on top, ensuring they touch.

  3. Cover with the remaining gold batter and bake until done.

Finish and serve

  1. Once baked, layer the cakes with frosting while warm, placing the gold layer between the white layers and frosting the top.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

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

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

  4. Allspice + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped air and structure that lift the white batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness through fat that coats the flour.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake crumb as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture, and help the gold batter set firmly.
Figs
Add natural sweetness, moisture, and fruity flavor to the gold layer.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air only while intact. Vigorous mixing knocks out that air, so the cake rises less and turns denser.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour, cinnamon, 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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