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Dessert

Fruit Cakes

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the beaten eggs, brandy, and molasses, mixing well.

  4. Stir in the grated nutmegs and spices.

  5. Fold in the raisins, currants, citron, and nuts.

  6. Sift in the flour with the baking powder and mix until thoroughly combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well-greased large cake pan.

  2. Bake for 2 hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness.
White sugar
Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help create a light texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the fruit and batter together as the cake sets.
Royal baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
New orleans molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and a dark color to the cake.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. A dense fruit cake can look browned outside while the center is still wet. Testing the center with a toothpick confirms the batter has set through before cooling.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, butter, sugar, raisin, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, butter, sugar, raisin, clove. 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.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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