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Dessert

Drop Fruit Cakes

A baked cake made with almonds, raisins, citron, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking soda, cinnamon, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Drop Fruit Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, combine the baking soda with boiling water and set aside.

  3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  5. Stir in the chopped almonds, raisins, and citron.

  6. Mix in the flour, cinnamon, and allspice.

  7. Fold in the egg whites until just combined.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter, while whites folded in last add lightness and help the cakes rise.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cakes a tender, fine crumb and rich flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture, a caramel-like sweetness, and helps the cakes brown.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dropped cakes together as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the boiling water to release gas that leavens the batter.
Raisins
Add chewy moisture and sweetness throughout the cakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only if they are whole and gently folded; overmixing deflates the foam, leaving dense drop cakes instead of light ones.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

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