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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A large spiced cake made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs, dried fruit, almonds, lemon rind, spices, brandy, and finished with almond and royal icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Clean the fruit and grate the nutmeg.

  2. Prepare a large cake tin lined with brown paper, using at least 3 rounds for the bottom.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and smooth.

  2. Add the salt and work in the eggs one at a time.

  3. Gradually mix in the flour, then the remaining ingredients, beating in a little at a time. Ensure the mixture is thoroughly combined.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour in the mixture and bake at 300°F (150°C) for 5 hours.

  2. Allow the cake to stand for 1 or more days before covering with almond icing.

  3. Coat with royal and transparent icing, then pipe with royal icing as desired.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the rich cake a tender, even crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the heavy fruit and sets the crumb as it bakes.
Currants
Add moisture, chew and concentrated fruit flavour throughout the cake.
Sultanas
Add moisture, sweetness and chewy texture throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and helps keep the cake moist during long storage.

The step that matters

Baking at a low temperature for a long time. A dense, heavily fruited batter cooks slowly; too high a heat will scorch the outside before the centre sets. Gentle, prolonged heat lets the centre set evenly.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, almond, lemon, nutmeg. 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.

More wedding cake recipes

Black 6Fruit 5Rich 4Icing 4Pudding 4Montgomery 3 See all 105 →

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