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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense loaf made with eggs, sugar, butter, milk, wine, spices, raisins, currants, baking powder, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Fruit 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until well combined.

  2. Add the butter and mix until smooth.

  3. Stir in the sweet milk and wine.

  4. Add the grated nutmegs, cinnamon, ground cloves, raisins, and currants.

  5. Mix in the baking powder and enough flour to form a stiff dough.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

  2. Bake for 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the batter as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the stiff dough that gives the cake its structure.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Currants
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow until a toothpick comes out clean. A dense, fruit-heavy batter needs a long, gentle bake so the centre sets without the outside over-browning or drying. Testing with a toothpick confirms the middle is fully cooked.

Swap the clove

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

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

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