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Dessert

Bride Cake

A rich cake made with eggs, butter, flour, citrus, brandy, sherry, rosewater, spices, raisins, currants, almonds, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Bride Cake

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 ↓

Bride 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

  1. Prepare the fruit and peel, rubbing in as much flour as it will take.

  2. Blanch and pound the almonds with the rosewater.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks, then mix in the fruit and flavorings.

  3. Fold in the whipped egg whites and the remaining flour gently.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2½ to 3 hours.

  2. If preferred, divide the batter and bake in two tins.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  5. Sherry + curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks bind the batter and whites, whipped and folded in, lighten its crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender texture to the cake.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Brown sugar
Creamed with butter, it adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper flavor.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture through the batter.
Almonds
Blanched and pounded, they add nutty richness and body to the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that lightens the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the cake rises well instead of turning dense.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, flour, brandy, sherry, sugar, raisin):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, flour, brandy, sherry, sugar, 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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