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Dessert

Poktsmoith Black Cake

A large fruit cake made with flour, sugar, butter, raisins, currants, citron, eggs, spices, brandy, wine, rose-water, and lemon zest.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Poktsmoith Black Cake

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. Brown the flour slightly.

  2. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  3. Gradually add the eggs, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the flour, fruits, spices, and liquors gradually.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a prepared baking pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for at least 4 hours.

  3. If baking large cakes, leave them in the oven to cool.

Ice and finish

  1. Ice the cake the next morning.

  2. Dredge with flour and wipe with a towel to help the icing stick.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dense batter together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to the cake's deep color and flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure, richness and lift as they are beaten in.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the fruit cake.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit flavor and chewy texture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Baking for a long time at a moderate heat. A dense, fruit-heavy batter needs a long, gentle bake so the centre sets fully without the outside burning. Baking too hot can scorch the surface before the interior is cooked through.

Swap the currant

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

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

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