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Dessert

Bride Cake

A rich cake made with butter, sugar, flour, eggs, spices, brandy, currants, almonds, and candied fruits.

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

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter by hand until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the sugar. Mix for 15 minutes.

  3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the butter and sugar mixture.

  4. Beat the egg yolks for 15 minutes.

  5. Add the beaten yolks to the mixture along with the flour, mace, and nutmeg. Mix well until combined.

  6. Gently fold in the brandy, currants, almonds, and candied fruits.

Prepare the pan

  1. Line a cake pan with parchment paper. Grease the pan with butter.

  2. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C). Cover the cake with paper to prevent burning.

  2. Serve iced or plain.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Whites add lift when whisked, and yolks enrich the batter and help bind it.
White flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the butter hold air when creamed.
Currants
Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour and some moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites are whisked to stiff peaks to trap air, and folding gently keeps that air in the batter so the cake rises rather than turning dense.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, mace, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg. 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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