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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A cake made with egg whites, butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, coconut, almonds, citron, raisins, and currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  4. Gradually add the flour and baking powder to the butter mixture, mixing well.

  5. Fold in the egg whites gently until combined.

  6. Stir in the grated coconut, chopped almonds, chopped citron, chopped raisins, and chopped currants.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans or a loaf pan.

  2. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

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

  3. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Creams with butter for a light texture and adds sweetness and browning.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Raisins
Add chewy moisture and sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stirring vigorously knocks out the air whipped into the egg whites, leading to a dense cake. Fold gently so the batter stays light and rises well in the oven.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, flour, coconut, almond, 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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