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Dessert

Fig Caiie

A baked dessert with a buttery batter and a sweet fig and raisin filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fig Caiie

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and 2 cups of sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the butter mixture.

  5. Fold the egg whites into the batter gently.

Make the filling

  1. In another pot, chop the figs and raisins finely.

  2. Add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of warm water to the chopped fruit and boil until thick.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour half of the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Spread the fig and raisin filling over the batter, then top with the remaining batter.

  3. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
Egg whites
Folded in to add lift and structure, helping the cake set with an airy texture.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and becomes lighter.
Figs
Form the sweet, moist fruit filling layered through the cake.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture to the fruit filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when handled gently; stirring vigorously knocks out the bubbles, so the cake bakes up denser and less risen.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Lemonfits less well

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