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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A dense, spiced cake made with currants, dates, raisins, citron, spices, and eggs, baked for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and part of the flour, followed by the spices and part of the brandy.

  3. Mix in the remaining flour, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Lightly coat the fruit in flour and fold it into the batter.

Bake

  1. Bake in a wooden starch box lined with three layers of paper at 350°F (175°C) for 5 to 6 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

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

  2. Dates + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together283 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Egg yolks enrich the batter and the whipped whites lighten it for a tender crumb.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a rich, tender texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the heavy fruit and batter together as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavor to the cake.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness, helping the cake stay soft and dense.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites are whipped to hold air, and folding them gently keeps that air in the batter. Stirring hard would deflate the batter and leave a denser cake.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, brandy, butter, raisin, sugar, 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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