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Dessert

Fig Layer Cake

A layered cake made with figs, sugar, butter, flour, eggs, and a fig filling and icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Fig Layer Cake

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.

Make the cake

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon butter.

  3. Add ½ cup water, 2 cups flour, 1 egg, and 2 teaspoons baking powder. Mix well.

  4. Divide the batter into two layers and bake until golden.

Make the fig filling

  1. For the filling, stew 8 large figs in a little water until soft, then mash.

  2. Mix the mashed figs with ½ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, boil ½ cup sugar with a little water until it reaches a hair stage.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over 1 beaten egg white and mix in some of the figs until cold.

  3. Flavor the icing with vanilla.

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. Fig + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + figtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb as its proteins set during baking.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter, helping it set as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the layers rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Figs
Provide moisture, sweetness and body to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup over the egg white. The hot sugar syrup partly cooks the beaten egg white, setting its foam into a smooth, glossy icing. Pour slowly while beating so the syrup is absorbed evenly instead of scrambling or deflating the foam.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Figthe original
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, vanilla. 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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