Skip to main content
Dessert

Fig and Nut Cake

A sweet cake made with figs, nuts, dates, coconut, potato, cream, sugar, eggs, and flavored with nutmeg or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Fig and dates work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Fig and Nut Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grate potatoes and drain on a sieve.

  2. In a bowl, combine grated potato, cream, sugar, egg yolk, beaten egg white, and nutmeg or vanilla extract.

  3. Add jelly powder to the mixture and set in a cold place.

Assemble and serve

  1. Layer ground figs, grated nuts, halved dates, and grated coconut in a mold until desired thickness is reached, finishing with coconut.

  2. Decorate with crystallized cherries and nut meats.

  3. Once set, turn out of the mold and serve with cream.

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 + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Fig + coconuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together88 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Dates + coconuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together76 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Nuts + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground figs
Provide the sweet, dense fruit base that gives the cake its body and flavour.
Grated nuts
Add fat and a rich, toasty texture to the layers.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the custard-like mixture as it sets.
Egg white
Adds lightness and helps the mixture hold its structure.
Jelly powder
Sets the potato mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Grated potato
Contributes starch and moisture to the mixture for a soft, set texture.

The step that matters

Setting the potato mixture in a cold place. Jelly powder needs to cool fully to gel. If the mixture is not chilled long enough, it will stay soft and may not hold its shape when turned out of the mold.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fig, nuts, dates, coconut, cream, sugar, egg):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, nuts, dates, coconut, cream, sugar, 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.

You might also like

Deep-Fried Potato BallsDeep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesStuffed DatesStuffed Dates32 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes