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Dessert

Plum Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, sugar, currants, raisins, spices, almonds, butter, cream, wine, brandy, rose-water, eggs, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Plum 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. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix the flour and sugar thoroughly. Add the currants, raisins, mace, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon peel, and ground almonds to the flour mixture.

  3. In a saucepan, melt the butter with the cream over low heat until warm, not hot.

  4. Stir in the sweet wine, brandy, rose-water, and the separated egg whites and yolks.

  5. Gradually strain the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, beating for a full hour.

Bake

  1. Butter a cake pan and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake for at least 4 hours, checking for doneness with a knife.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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 richness and structure as they set in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its starch sets during baking.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich texture.
Currants
Provide fruit, moisture and sweetness throughout the cake.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the batter.

The step that matters

Baking time and doneness check. A cake this rich and wet needs a long, low-intensity bake so the centre sets fully without the outside burning. Testing with a knife in the thickest part shows whether the batter has set through, since eggs and fruit-heavy batters can look done on top while remaining raw inside.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, raisin, mace, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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