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Dessert

Bride Cakes

A rich, spiced cake with dried fruit, candied peel, and brandy, baked in a hoop.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Bride Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream 1½ lb of butter in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add 1½ lb of sifted sugar and mix well.

  3. Add 12 eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in 2½ lb of flour and 1 teaspoon of salt until combined.

  5. Fold in 1 lb of dried cherries, 1 lb of currants, 1½ lb of mixed candied peel, and ½ pint of brandy.

  6. Add 1 oz each of ground cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, and nutmeg, along with 1 teacup of caramel, the zest of 4 oranges, and ½ lb of ground almonds. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Line a baking hoop with buttered paper on the sides and bottom, place it on a baking sheet, and pour in the mixture.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 2.5 hours.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Creamed with the sugar to give the cake a rich, tender crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and lift as the cake sets.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the fruit and spices together.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender texture when creamed with butter.
Dried cherries
Add moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and helps keep the cake moist.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs one at a time. Eggs added too quickly can curdle the creamed butter and sugar, breaking the emulsion and leaving a heavy, uneven batter. Mixing well after each egg keeps the batter smooth so the cake rises evenly.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, brandy, clove, cinnamon. 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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