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Dessert

Fig Cake

A moist cake made with figs, raisins, currants, spices, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Mix the batter

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

  2. Add the water, spices, and eggs, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the raisins, wine, figs, and currants.

  4. Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until combined.

  5. Cream together 2 cups sugar, ¾ cup butter, 1 cup sweet milk, 1 cup corn starch, 2 cups flour, and 3 teaspoons baking powder.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Bake the layers separately and assemble with the fig cake layers.

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. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that makes the cake rich and tender while creaming with sugar traps air.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep molasses flavor to the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Figs
Add moisture, chewy texture, and natural sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites until well combined. Beaten whites hold air that makes the batter light. Folding gently keeps that air in, while vigorous stirring deflates it and leaves a dense cake.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, wine. 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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