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Dessert

Home Fruit Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, sugar, molasses, butter, eggs, spices, raisins, currants, figs, citron, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Home Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Mix the fruit and spices a day before making the cake.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour and baking powder.

  2. Add brown sugar, molasses, and butter; mix well.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Stir in the spices and chopped fruit and nuts.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep, caramel-like flavour.

The step that matters

Beat in the eggs one at a time. Adding eggs gradually lets each one emulsify fully into the butter and sugar mixture. This keeps the batter smooth and prevents curdling, which would make the cake's texture uneven.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, molasses, butter, egg, allspice, 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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