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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A baked cake made with eggs, sugar, molasses, browned flour, butter, milk or cream, baking powder, brandy, citron, raisins, currants, cloves, allspice, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Fruit 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, molasses, browned flour, butter, milk or cream, and baking powder.

  2. Stir in the brandy, citron, raisins, currants, cloves, allspice, and mace.

  3. Roll the raisins in a little flour to prevent sinking.

Bake

  1. Layer the batter and citron alternately in a greased pan until full.

  2. Bake for 4 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 + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter 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 separately, the whites and yolks add lightness and structure to the batter.
Browned flour
Provides the structure of the cake and a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the cake richness and a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep brown color.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake moist and tender.

The step that matters

Roll the raisins in a little flour. Raisins and currants are dense and heavy, so they tend to sink to the bottom of a batter. A light flour coating helps them grip the batter and stay evenly distributed while baking.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Apricotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, flour, butter, milk, 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.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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