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Klbbon Fig Cake

A layered cake made with white and gold batters, with halved figs between the layers and frosting over the whole cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Klbbon Fig Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the white cake

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 2 cups of sugar and ⅔ cup of butter.

  3. Add ⅔ cup of milk and 3 cups of flour alternately, mixing well.

  4. Stir in 2 teaspoons of baking powder and fold in the beaten egg whites.

Make and bake the gold cake

  1. For the gold cake, cream together ½ cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar.

  2. Add 7 egg yolks, 1 whole egg, ½ cup of milk, and 1½ cups of flour mixed with 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

  3. Season with cinnamon and allspice to taste.

  4. Pour half of the gold cake batter into a pan and layer with halved figs, dusting lightly with flour.

  5. Top with the remaining gold cake batter and bake until golden.

Assemble

  1. Layer the gold cake between the white cakes with frosting and cover the entire cake with frosting.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Allspice + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam, they add lift and a light, airy structure to the white cake.
Egg yolks
Add richness, colour and moisture to the gold cake batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake crumb as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cakes rise and stay open-textured.
Figs
Sit within the gold cake layer, adding moisture and a jammy sweetness as they bake.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only if they are beaten to a stable foam and folded in gently. Overmixing deflates the foam, so the white cake bakes up dense instead of light.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, fig):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, cinnamon, fig. 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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