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Dessert

A Very Nice Wedding Cake

A spiced fruit cake with molasses, currants, raisins, citron, and spices baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

A Very Nice Wedding 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 the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Gradually add the molasses and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and mace.

  5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the eggs, mixing well after each addition.

  6. Stir in the brandy, wine, currants, raisins, and citron until evenly distributed.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into greased cake pans.

  2. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 the cake sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and is creamed to trap air for lightness.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and deep color to the cake.
Currants
Add chewy texture, moisture, and sweetness through the batter.
Raisins
Add chewy texture, moisture, and sweetness through the batter.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs with the dry ingredients. Alternating dry ingredients with eggs and mixing after each addition helps the batter emulsify smoothly, so it stays even and bakes with a uniform crumb.

“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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