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Dessert

A Bich Loaf Ob Wedding Cake

A rich, spiced wedding cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, brandy, molasses, spices, flour, citron, and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Bich Loaf Ob Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat butter and sugar together until creamy.

  3. Add beaten eggs, brandy, and molasses to the mixture.

  4. Stir in saleratus, cloves, mace, allspice, nutmeg, flour, citron, and currants. Mix well.

Bake

  1. Line a wooden box with well-buttered paper, removing the bottom and keeping the cover.

  2. Fill the box two-thirds full with the batter.

  3. Bake for about 4 hours, testing with a straw for doneness.

  4. Once done, remove the rim and leave the cake on the cover to cool.

Frost and dry

  1. Beat the whites of 4 eggs, gradually adding fine loaf sugar and lemon juice until thick.

  2. Spread frosting over the top of the cake about 1 inch thick and on the sides half that thickness.

  3. Set the cake in a cool oven to dry.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Mace + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 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
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the heavy batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dense fruit and batter together as it bakes.
Fine white sugar
Adds sweetness and helps create a creamy base when beaten with butter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Dried currants
Add chewy texture and concentrated fruit sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Baking low and long. This dense, fruit-heavy batter cooks slowly; too high a heat can scorch the outside while the center stays raw. Testing with a straw confirms the middle is set before cooling.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, brandy, molasses, clove, allspice. 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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