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Dessert

Prize Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with butter, currants, raisins, citron, molasses, spices, and brandy, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Prize Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the well-beaten eggs, brandy, molasses, and sifted flour.

  3. Flour the fruit, cutting the citron into thin slices, and add it along with the spices and baking soda dissolved in a little warm water.

Bake and rest

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 4 hours.

  2. Let the cake sit for at least a week before cutting.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

  3. Currant + raisintop 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

Butter
Creamed with the sugar to add richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
Pastry flour
Provides the structure that holds the fruit in the batter.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to help the cake rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in warm water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it spreads evenly through the batter. Clumps can leave bitter pockets and uneven rising.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, currant, sugar, raisin, egg, brandy, molasses. 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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