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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake made with egg whites, sugar, butter, milk, corn starch, flour, baking powder, spices, figs, and optional almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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 the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff.

  3. Cream together the sugar and butter in another bowl.

  4. Add the milk, corn starch, flour, and baking powder to the creamed mixture and mix well.

  5. Divide the batter into three parts; to one part add cinnamon, allspice or cloves, and figs.

Bake and ice

  1. Pour the batters into cake pans, layering two white and one dark.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

  3. Boil sugar and water for five minutes to make the icing syrup.

  4. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites and beat until cool.

  5. If desired, add pounded almonds to the icing.

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.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Corn + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together647 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 to lighten the batter and give the cake an airy crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to add richness and a tender texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Corn starch
Softens the crumb, giving a more tender texture than flour alone.
Figs
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the dark batter layer.

The step that matters

Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites. The hot sugar syrup cooks the egg whites as it is beaten in, forming a stable, glossy icing. If the syrup is not hot enough or poured too slowly, the icing can stay loose or grainy.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, corn, flour, cinnamon. 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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