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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A light cake made with egg whites, sugar, butter, flour, almonds, citrus, and coconut, baked slowly and iced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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White Fruit Cake

Why it works: Almond and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pound the sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar with a little rose water to prevent oiling.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until they stand alone.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter, then gradually stir in the flour.

  2. Add the egg whites and sugar alternately with the flour until well combined.

  3. Flavor with vanilla or extract of bitter almonds.

  4. Fold the fruit and stir it in last.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C), being careful not to burn it.

  2. Ice the cake after baking.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Almond + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked to stand alone, they give the cake its light, airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar-free base to add richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sweet almonds
Pounded to a paste, they add nutty body and moisture to the batter.
Citron
Finely cut candied fruit that adds sweetness and chewy texture through the crumb.

The step that matters

Baking in a slow oven. A slow oven at 300°F bakes the cake through gently; higher heat would scorch the sugar and outer crust before the centre sets.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, almond, rose):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, almond, rose. 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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