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Dessert

Rich Cake

A dense, buttery cake studded with raisins, currants, sultanas, almonds, cherries, and citron, flavored with nutmeg and almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Rich Cake

Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Rich Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Add the sugar and grated nutmeg, and beat well together.

  3. Incorporate the raw yolks of the eggs and beat for 10 minutes.

  4. Add the fruits and almond essence, mixing well.

  5. Fold in the stiffly whipped egg whites and the warmed flour that has been sifted.

Bake

  1. Do not make the cake too deep; use 2 tins instead.

  2. Bake for 5 hours in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Nutmeg + raisintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whipped whites lighten it for a tender crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a rich, tender texture.
Sugar
Creams with butter and adds sweetness and browning during the long bake.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
Currants
Dried fruit that adds moisture, chewiness and concentrated sweetness.
Raisins
Dried fruit that adds moisture, chewiness and concentrated sweetness.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites and flour. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the egg whites, which helps the cake rise and stay light. Overmixing deflates the foam and toughens the flour's gluten, producing a dense cake.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, nutmeg, egg, raisin, almond, flour. 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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