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Dessert

Bride Cake

A large, spiced cake with currants, raisins, almonds, and mixed peel, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Bride Cake

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bride 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the fruit and nuts

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

  2. Wash, pick, and dry the currants. Set the currants before the fire to warm.

  3. Blanch and split the almonds. Set the almonds aside.

  4. Stone and chop the raisins.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and gradually add the sugar until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Stir in the grated nutmeg, cinnamon, orange-flower water, brandy, and lemon rind.

  4. Fold in the flour.

  5. Add the currants, raisins, mixed peel, and almonds.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for about 2 to 2.5 hours, or until a toothpick 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Unsalted butter
Adds tenderness and richness, and helps the creamed batter stay light.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, traps air that helps it rise.
Currants
Add moisture, chew, and fruit flavour throughout the cake.
Raisins
Add moisture, chew, and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs one at a time. Beating each egg in fully before the next keeps the butter and sugar emulsified and airy. Adding them too fast can cause the batter to curdle, which weakens the cake's rise and texture.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, almond, raisin, nutmeg, 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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