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Dessert

Ribbon Fig Cake

A layered cake with figs, raisins, currants, and spices, finished with white icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Ribbon Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  4. Stir in the milk, baking powder, and vanilla.

  5. Gradually add the flour until well combined.

  6. In separate bowls, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  7. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Divide and layer

  1. Divide the batter in half.

  2. Pour one half into jelly tins.

  3. Layer split figs, seeds up, on top of the batter in the tins.

  4. To the remaining batter, add molasses, raisins, currants, cinnamon, cloves, and a little more flour to thicken.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake until golden brown.

  2. Combine the two layers with white 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and emulsify, while whipped whites lighten the batter and help it rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, lifting the batter so the cake becomes light and open.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air in the batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, aerated texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep colour and flavour to the dark fruit layer.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the cake lift. Heavy stirring deflates them, so the cake bakes dense rather than light.

“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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