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Dessert

A Rich Plum-Cake

A rich plum cake made with currants, candied peel, almonds, spices, and liqueur, baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

A Rich Plum-Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cream the butter until smooth.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar over a pan of hot water until warm.

  2. Remove from heat and continue whisking until cool.

  3. Combine the egg mixture with the creamed butter.

  4. Add the currants, candied peel, bitter almond paste, sliced sweet almonds, cinnamon, mace, and liqueur.

  5. Beat all ingredients together for 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Line a cake hoop with paper and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake for 2 to 3 hours, then cool the oven and let the cake dry inside.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whisked eggs trap air and bind the batter, giving the cake its structure.
Butter
Creamed butter adds richness and a tender crumb.
All-purpose flour
Flour provides the starch structure that holds the rich batter together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps the batter brown during baking.
Currants
Currants add fruitiness and moisture to the cake.
Sweet almonds
Sliced almonds add texture and a nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Cool the oven and let the cake dry inside. Baking a dense, fruit-rich cake for 2 to 3 hours can over-brown the outside before the center sets. Lowering the heat and letting the cake dry in the cooling oven finishes the centre gently.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, egg, sugar, lemon, orange, almond. 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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