Skip to main content
Dessert

A Rich Cake

A spiced currant cake made with butter, almond paste, eggs, and dried fruits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

A Rich 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. Plump the currants by warming them in front of the fire.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and prepare a cake pan by greasing it.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs well and mix in the almond paste.

  2. Cream the softened butter until light and fluffy, then combine with the egg mixture.

  3. Gradually add the flour, sack, brandy, and spices, sifting in the sugar gradually.

  4. Just before filling the pan, fold in the plumped currants and other fruits.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven for 4 hours, testing for doneness by inserting a knife into the center.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Almond + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Currants
Provide the main fruit body and moisture, plumped first so they stay juicy in the crumb.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Unsalted butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add tenderness and richness.
Almond paste
Adds moisture, sweetness and a dense, rich texture to the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the structure as the cake bakes.
Double-refined sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps brown the crust during long baking.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness in the center. A long bake of a dense, fruit-heavy cake can look set on top while the center is still wet. Testing deep in the middle with a knife confirms the batter has fully set before cooling.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against currant, flour, butter, almond, egg, sugar, clove. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipes