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Dessert

Fruit Cake, Par Excellence

A dense cake made with raisins, currants, figs, citron, candied fruits, coconut butter, flour, eggs, sugar, grape juice, and sparkling wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Cake, Par Excellence

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Chop and mix the seeded layer raisins, seedless raisins or currants, figs, citron, candied orange peel, candied cherries, candied ginger, and ground cinnamon thoroughly.

  2. Cream the coconut butter with the flour.

  3. Separate the eggs.

  4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  5. Beat the yolks with the powdered sugar until light.

  6. Add a spoonful of beaten egg whites and the creamed butter and flour alternately. Mix well.

  7. Add the mixed fruit, grape juice, and red sparkling wine. Mix thoroughly.

Bake and store

  1. Pour the mixture into a large oiled pan and bake for 2 hours at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Store the cake wrapped in a close box; it improves with age.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift, while yolks enrich the batter and help bind it.
Coconut butter
Fat that softens the crumb and adds richness and moisture.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the fruit and batter together as it bakes.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves easily into the beaten yolks.
Seedless raisins or cleaned currants
Add concentrated sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Grape juice
Adds liquid and fruity sweetness to moisten the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Adding them alternately with the flour mixture and mixing gently keeps that air from collapsing, so the cake bakes lighter.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, fig, ginger, cinnamon, coconut, butter, flour):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Cherryfits about as well
  3. Peachfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, fig, ginger, cinnamon, coconut, butter, flour. 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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