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Dessert

Thanksgiving Cake

A layered cake made with cocoa‑nut batter, egg whites, baking powder, powdered sugar, hickory nut meats, figs, and coconut topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and fig are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,241 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cake layers

  1. Prepare the batter for cocoa‑nut cake.

  2. Bake five layers in jelly tins.

Make the frosting

  1. Beat the egg whites and mix in baking powder and powdered sugar for the frosting.

Fill and top the cake

  1. Mix frosting with rolled hickory nut meats for the first layer.

  2. Mix frosting with finely sliced figs for the second layer.

  3. Mix frosting with hickory nut meats for the third layer.

  4. Mix frosting with figs for the fourth layer.

  5. Spread plain frosting on the top layer and grate cocoa‑nut over it thickly.

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. Sugar + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cocoa + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Cocoa + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to form the frosting's airy structure, which holds the layers together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the frosting mixture, helping it lighten and rise.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the frosting and dissolves smoothly into the whipped whites.
Hickory nut meats
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavour to the filling layers.
Figs
Add sweetness, chewy texture and moisture to the filling layers.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, meat, fig):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Pecansfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, meat, 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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