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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A baked cake made with brown sugar, butter, eggs, sour milk, baking soda, lemon juice, nutmeg, cassia, flour, raisins, currants, and optional citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter.

  2. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sour milk.

  3. Mix in the baking soda, lemon juice, nutmeg, and cassia.

  4. Gradually add the flour, mixing until well combined.

  5. Fold in the raisins, currants, and citron if using.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + cassiatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk and lemon juice to lift the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, contributing to a tender crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb stay soft.
Sour milk
Supplies acidity that activates the baking soda and adds moisture.

The step that matters

Mix in the baking soda with the lemon juice and sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Adding it to the acidic liquids and then mixing promptly lets the gas form bubbles that lift the batter in the oven.

Swap the cassia

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, lemon, nutmeg, flour. 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

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