Name: White Fruit Cake
Ingredients: ½ pound butter; ½ pound powdered sugar; 6 egg whites; ½ pound sifted flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; ¼ pound shelled almonds; ¾ pound citron peel

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

Cream together the butter and powdered sugar.
Add the egg whites and mix well.
Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder.
Fold in the shelled almonds and citron peel.

Bake

Line a cake tin with buttered paper.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake at 300°F (150°C) for three 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter: Creamed with sugar to create a tender, rich crumb and flavour.
Egg whites: Add structure and lift to the batter as they set during baking.
Sifted flour: Forms the cake's main structure once baked.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Shelled almonds: Add texture and nutty flavour throughout the cake.
Citron peel: Adds candied citrus aroma and a chewy, fragrant bite.

The step that matters

Bake low and slow for the full time. Cooking at 300°F for three hours gives the dense batter time to set through the centre without over-browning the outside. Opening the oven early or raising the heat can cause the cake to sink or cook unevenly.

“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.