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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A rich, spiced cake with raisins, currants, citron, and spices, baked for four hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash the currants, seed and chop the raisins finely, and cut the citron into thin, small slices.

  2. Dust the fruit with a little flour and mix it in thoroughly.

Make the batter

  1. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and gradually add the sugar and spices.

  2. Add the molasses gradually, and if needed, add some rose water to make the mixture easier to stir.

  3. Beat the mixture until very light, then add the beaten yolks, lemon juice, grated lemon rinds, and remaining rose water.

  4. Mix in half the flour, then fold in the beaten egg whites and the rest of the flour gently.

  5. Dust the fruit with a little flour and mix it in thoroughly.

Bake and store

  1. Line the pans with three layers of paper, buttering the last layer well.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for four hours, being careful not to let it burn.

  3. Leave the cakes in the paper until ready to use.

  4. Make this cake at least a month before serving.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  5. Rose + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Eggs
Yolks and whites add structure and richness as the batter sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter and fruit together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep, sweet flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Currants
Add tart, concentrated fruit flavor and moisture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Baking for four hours at a moderate oven heat. A long, moderate bake lets the heavy, fruit-rich batter cook through to the center while the sugars and molasses brown slowly. Too much heat would scorch the outside before the middle sets, which is why the record warns against burning.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, molasses, nutmeg, rose, raisin):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, molasses, nutmeg, rose, raisin. 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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