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Dessert

Southern Fruit Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, molasses, sour cream, flour, eggs, spices, raisins, currants, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Southern Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and molasses.

  3. Add the sour cream and mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

  6. Beat the egg yolks and fold them into the batter.

  7. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the batter.

  8. Mix in the raisins and currants.

  9. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add it to the batter last.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 1 hour 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb through creaming with sugar.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten its structure.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour cream to lift the batter as it bakes.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity that tenderizes the crumb and activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda last. Baking soda releases gas once dissolved in acid and liquid, so it should go in just before baking. Adding it too early lets the lift fade before the cake sets, which can leave it dense.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, cream, flour, egg, 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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