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Dessert

Plum, or Currant Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, spices, egg yolks, egg whites, orange and lemon peel, almonds, brandy, currants, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Plum, or Currant Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy.

  2. Stir in the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well mixed.

  3. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Beat the egg whites until frothy and gently fold them into the mixture a little at a time.

  5. Add the shredded orange and lemon peel, pounded almonds, and brandy, mixing well.

  6. Stir in the currants and then the flour, mixing as lightly as possible.

Prepare the tin

  1. Line a tin hoop with three sheets of paper and place six sheets at the bottom.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for three hours.

  2. If the cake browns too quickly, cover the top with paper.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 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
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a rich, tender body.
Egg yolks
Add richness, fat and emulsifying power that help bind the batter.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to lighten the batter and help it rise.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Currants
Add concentrated fruit flavour and chewy bursts of sweetness throughout.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, even crumb when creamed.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped to frothy peaks and gently folded; vigorous stirring knocks the air out, leaving a dense cake. Overmixing the flour after adding it also toughens the crumb by developing gluten.

Swap the orange

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

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

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