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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A sweet cake made with raisins, figs, almonds, citron, coconut, and lemon flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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White Fruit 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 ↓

White Fruit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the sweet milk and mix well.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour and baking powder.

  5. Beat in the egg whites until well combined.

Add the fruit and bake

  1. Mix in the raisins, figs, almonds, and chopped citron, sifting flour over the fruit before adding.

  2. Finally, fold in the grated coconut and lemon flavoring.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  4. Bake for 2 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.

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

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

  3. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites add structure and lift, setting the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake and fruit together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown its crust.
Raisins
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the fruit to the batter. Sifting flour over the fruit before mixing it in helps keep the heavy pieces spread evenly instead of sinking to the bottom of the pan. The batter should be well combined but not overmixed, so the fruit is distributed without deflating the air beaten into the egg whites.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Peachfits less well

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