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Dessert

Bride Cake

A rich, spiced cake with currants, almonds, candied fruit, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Bride Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bride Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a large bowl.

  2. Beat in the sugar for 15 minutes.

  3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the butter and sugar mixture.

  4. Beat the yolks for 15 minutes and add them to the mixture along with the flour, mace, and nutmeg.

  5. Mix everything well until combined.

  6. Gently fold in the brandy, currants, almonds, and candied fruits.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a cake hoop with paper and grease it with butter.

  2. Pour the mixture into the hoop and bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Once risen, cover with paper to prevent burning.

  4. Serve iced or plain.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trapped by whisking give lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Its proteins set during baking, giving the cake its structure.
Sugar
Creamed with butter, it aids air incorporation and adds sweetness and browning.
Currants
Dried fruit that adds chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and its alcohol evaporates during baking.

The step that matters

Covering the cake once it has risen. Sugar and fruit in the batter brown quickly at high oven heat, so the top can scorch before the centre is fully baked. A paper cover shields the surface while the interior sets.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg. 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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