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Dessert

Bride-cake

A rich cake made with butter, eggs, flour, sugar, spices, dried fruit, wine, brandy, and orange‑flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Bride-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the ingredients

  1. Wash the butter in plain water, then wash it in rose-water.

  2. Beat the butter to a cream.

  3. Beat the egg yolks for an hour.

  4. Beat the egg whites for an hour.

  5. Mix the dry ingredients and keep them warm.

Make the batter

  1. Strain the eggs into the butter.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a strong froth.

  3. Mix the sweet wine and brandy, then add the mixture to the butter and eggs.

  4. Mix well.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients.

  6. Beat thoroughly.

  7. Mix in the chopped raisins.

  8. Add the orange-flower water.

  9. Beat the mixture together for at least an hour.

Bake

  1. Prepare a well-buttered hoop and line it with buttered white paper.

  2. Fill the hoop with batter, leaving space for rising.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped yolks and whites provide the main structure and lift in the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake its rich, tender texture.
All-purpose flour
Its starch sets during baking, giving the cake its structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed butter hold air while beating.
Currants
Dried fruit adds moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour, and its alcohol evaporates during baking.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to a strong froth and keep the batter beaten. Air whipped into the egg whites is the main source of lift in a cake this rich. If the whites are under-whipped or the batter is allowed to deflate before it goes into the hoop, the cake will rise poorly and bake up dense.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, flour, sugar, almond, wine, brandy. 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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