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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with almonds, butter, brown sugar, eggs, flour, raisins, currants, candied fruit, citrus peel, spices, sherry, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 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 ↓

Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Shred the citrus peels very fine.

  2. Cut the candied fruit into tiny dice.

  3. Line the sides and bottom of a baking pan with paper.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the brown sugar and beat well.

  3. Beat the eggs until creamy.

  4. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture.

  5. Gradually add the sifted flour. Mix well.

  6. Incorporate the fruit and flour mixture.

  7. Add the spices, brandy, and sherry.

Bake

  1. Steam the cake.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2.5 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + plumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together211 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and lift, helping the cake set as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a deeper, caramel-like flavor.
Sifted flour
Provides the main structure that holds the dense fruit and nuts together.
Shelled almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavor, and their oil contributes richness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor, and its alcohol helps preserve the cake.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven. A low, slow bake at 300°F lets the dense batter cook through evenly without the outside over-browning or drying before the center sets.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, butter, sugar, egg, flour, raisin, plum):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, butter, sugar, egg, flour, raisin, plum. 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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