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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake with a white batter and a gold batter, topped with 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 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.

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 and flour, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

Make the gold batter

  1. For the gold part, cream together 1 cup of sugar and ¾ cup of butter.

  2. Mix in ½ cup of sweet milk, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, and 1 ½ cups flour.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks, whole egg, allspice, and cinnamon.

Layer and bake

  1. In two long pie tins, pour the white batter.

  2. In another long pie tin, pour half of the gold batter and layer with halved figs.

  3. Top with the remaining gold batter.

  4. Bake until done.

Assemble

  1. Once baked, layer the cakes with frosting while warm.

  2. Place the gold layer between the white layers.

  3. Cover the top with frosting.

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

Eggs
Whipped whites and yolks add structure and lift, and the yolks add richness to the gold batter.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown and stay tender.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise.
Figs
Add fruit sweetness and moisture inside the gold layer.

The step that matters

Layer the cakes with frosting while warm. Frosting applied to warm cake layers can melt, slide, or soak in, so the layers may slip or the frosting may look greasy. Letting the layers cool first helps the frosting set neatly.

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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