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Dessert

Black Fruit Cake

A dense fruit cake made with currants, raisins, molasses, and spices, baked at 350°F for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Black Fruit 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. Divide the flour into two equal parts.

  2. In one part, mix the cinnamon, grated nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.

  3. Thoroughly mix the currants and raisins with the remaining half of the flour.

  4. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

  5. Add the beaten eggs.

  6. Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and stir it into the molasses.

  7. Pour this mixture into the cake bowl.

  8. Add the flour and spice mixture, stirring until smooth.

  9. Then add the flour and fruit mixture, stirring until thoroughly combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into baking tins lined with buttered paper.

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

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 + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and deep flavour; it reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas that helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the molasses. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Mixing it into the molasses, after dissolving it in warm water, spreads it evenly so the cake rises uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Currantthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, raisin, flour, brandy, egg, molasses. 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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