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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A cake made with egg whites, butter, powdered sugar, sweet cream, brandy, flour, leavening, almonds, citron, coconut, rose water, lemon extract, and sugared orange peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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White Fruit Cake

Why it works: Almond and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

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

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

  3. In another bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

  4. Add the sweet cream and brandy to the butter mixture and mix well.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and baking powder.

  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.

  7. Fold in the chopped almonds, citron, grated coconut, rose water, lemon extract, and sugared orange peel.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake carefully 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. Almond + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they add lightness and air to the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
Chopped almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavor to the cake.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, even crumb when creamed with butter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites trap air that helps the cake rise. Overmixing or deflating them when combining with the batter makes the cake dense. Your record says to fold in the other ingredients, so take care to keep the batter light.

Swap the coconut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, cream, brandy, flour, 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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