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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A rich baked cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, fruit, spices, molasses, and alcohol.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, mixing until smooth.

  2. Beat the eggs until creamy and add to the butter and sugar mixture.

  3. Stir in the molasses.

  4. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and spices, then add gradually while beating thoroughly.

  5. Stone and chop the raisins and chop the citron.

  6. Add the fruit, wine, and brandy to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Line a large pan with two layers of heavy brown paper and lightly butter it.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and lift to the batter as they set during baking.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, butter traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Flour forms the main structure that holds the dense fruit and batter together.
Baking soda
Baking soda reacts with the molasses to help the cake rise and darken.
Molasses
Molasses adds moisture, sweetness, and a deep color to the cake.
Raisins
Raisins add moisture, chewiness, and sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Flour should be sifted with the baking soda and spices and added gradually while beating thoroughly, so it blends evenly without lumps or overmixing that could toughen the cake.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, raisin, molasses, cinnamon, clove. 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.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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