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Dessert

Prune Cake

A moist cake made with prunes, sour milk, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Prune Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

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

  3. Add the prunes, sour milk, egg, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour, stirring until just combined.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into two greased cake pans or a loaf pan.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  3. Let cool and frost with either white or chocolate icing.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Prunes
Add moisture and a dense, fruity sweetness to the crumb.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Adds acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor when creamed with sugar.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour, stirring until just combined. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense. Stirring only until the flour disappears keeps the crumb tender.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

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