Why it works: Walnut and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 373 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓
Fig 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter.
Add the flour, chopped figs, sweet milk, egg, and baking powder; mix well.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Assemble
Once done, layer the fig cake between light cake layers with a little frosting.
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.
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Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together373 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Fig + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,026 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Walnut + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
- Butter
- Creamed with the sugar to add fat and tenderness to the crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake and figs together.
- Chopped figs
- Add fruit sweetness, moisture and a chewy texture to the cake.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and helps give the cake its structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises and becomes light.
The step that matters
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Baking too briefly leaves wet batter in the centre that can sink as it cools, while overbaking dries the crumb. A toothpick test checks that the centre has set without over-drying the cake.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, fig, milk, egg):
- Almondfits better
- Walnutthe original
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Hazelnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, fig, milk, egg. 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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