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Dessert

Plum Cake

A dense fruit cake made with raisins, currants, almonds, molasses, butter, eggs, spices, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Plum Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine raisins, currants, brown sugar, chopped almonds, chopped citron, chopped lemon peel, molasses, and butter.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Make the batter

  1. Season with cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg to taste.

  2. Stir in the sweet milk and Magic Soda last.

  3. Sift the flour before using, then add enough flour to make a stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until done.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy body and moisture to the cake.
Butter
Adds fat, richness and a tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the stiff batter together when baked.
Magic soda
Leavens the batter so it rises and lightens as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Enough flour must be added to make a stiff batter; too little leaves a loose batter that spreads and sinks, while too much makes the cake dense and dry.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, sugar, almond, lemon, molasses, butter, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, sugar, almond, lemon, molasses, butter, egg. 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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