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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake with a fig filling made from figs, sugar, butter, and citrus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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 cake batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the egg whites and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, milk, and baking powder. Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.

Make the fig filling

  1. In a saucepan, boil the light brown sugar with water for 3 minutes. Stir in the juices of the orange and lemon, and 1 tablespoon of butter.

  2. Add the grated orange peel and cornstarch dissolved in water. Boil the mixture again. Remove from heat.

  3. Stir in the chopped figs until cool.

Assemble

  1. Spread the fig filling between layers of the cake.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Milk + figtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Lemon + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs whites
Add structure and lift to the batter as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the cake crumb.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas to help the cake rise.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling so it holds its shape between the layers.
Figs
Provide the main fruity flavor and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the filling again and remove from heat. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to fully thicken the filling. Stirring in the figs only after removing it from heat lets the filling cool and set without overcooking the fruit.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Blackberryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, flour, milk, lemon, fig. 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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