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Baking

Fruit Cake

A baked cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, brandy, spices, raisins, currants, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

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.

Prepare

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

  2. Prepare your pan by lining it with parchment paper.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light.

  2. Whisk the eggs until thick, then gradually add them to the butter mixture.

  3. Mix in the flour, brandy, nutmeg, salt, and cinnamon.

  4. Fold in the chopped raisins, currants, and sliced citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with a knife.

  2. Bake for about 4 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Whisked eggs add structure and lift to the batter as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter and fruit together as it bakes.
Sugar
Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help create a light texture.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Currants
Add tart, concentrated fruit flavor and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Creaming the butter and sugar until light. Beating air into the fat and sugar creates the bubbles that give the cake lift. Under-creaming leaves a dense texture, while the eggs must be added gradually so the batter does not split.

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

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