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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A cake made from boiled cracked wheat, coconut, currants, apples or figs, baked into a loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Mix the boiled cracked wheat, grated coconut, coconut milk, dried currants, and stewed sweet apples or figs in a large bowl.

  2. Add enough wheat meal to form a moderately stiff dough.

  3. Shape the dough into loaves.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 to 2 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + coconuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Currant + appletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled cracked wheat
Provides the bulk and starchy body that holds the cake together.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, richness and a distinct coconut flavor to the loaves.
Coconut milk
Adds moisture and fat, keeping the crumb tender during baking.
Dried currants
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy pockets of fruit through the crumb.
Stewed sweet apples or figs
Add moisture and natural sweetness, helping the dough stay soft inside.
Wheat meal
Adds structure by binding the mixture into a dough that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Adding the wheat meal. The dough should be moderately stiff. Too little wheat meal leaves it wet and slack, so the loaves may spread or bake dense in the centre. Add it gradually until the dough holds its shape.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, coconut, milk, apple):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, coconut, milk, apple. 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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