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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, flour, currants, raisins, molasses, brandy, citron, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  2. Strain into the molasses.

  3. Coat the currants and raisins in flour, then add to the mixture.

  4. Add the sliced citron, egg yolks, brandy, and remaining flour along with spices. Mix thoroughly.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into well-greased 3-quart tins lined with thick paper.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300 °F (150 °C) for about 4 hours.

  3. If the oven gets too hot, cool it by opening the cover.

  4. Cover the top with thick paper while baking.

  5. Once cooled, ice the top of the cake.

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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 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. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a rich, tender crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and emulsify the batter, helping it bind and set.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and deepens the color and flavor of the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the fruit and batter together as the cake sets.
New orleans molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Raisins
Add moisture, chew, and sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Keep the oven slow and the top covered. A long bake at a low, steady heat lets the dense, fruit-heavy batter cook through without scorching. Covering the top with paper shields it from direct heat, so the crust does not darken or burn before the centre sets.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Currantthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, molasses, sugar, raisin, brandy, 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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