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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A spiced fruit cake baked and steamed, made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, spices, brandy, lemon juice, raisins, currants, citron, and figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Cream the butter until very light.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and beat well together.

  3. In separate bowls, beat the yolks of the eggs until thick and lemon colored, and whip the whites to a froth.

  4. Add the yolks to the butter and sugar mixture, then fold in the whipped whites.

  5. Add the flour, saving ¼ cup to dredge the fruit.

  6. Mix in the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace, cloves, brandy, and lemon juice.

  7. Dredge the raisins, currants, and figs with flour, then add to the mixture.

Assemble the cake

  1. Butter and flour a large round pan.

  2. Pour in a layer of the mixture, then dredge the citron with flour and lay it over the batter.

  3. Cover with the remaining mixture and place the rest of the citron on top.

  4. Cover the pan with buttered paper, tying it down around the rim.

Bake and store

  1. Steam for 3 hours, then bake at 300°F (150°C) for 1½ hours.

  2. Make the cake a month or six weeks before needed, keeping it tightly covered in a stone jar or tub.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 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
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten its structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter and fruit together as it sets.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the butter cream to a light, aerated texture.
Raisins
Add moisture and chewy sweetness throughout the dense cake.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavor and helps keep the cake moist during long storage.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped whites. Whites must be folded gently so the air bubbles they hold are not deflated, which keeps the batter light before it sets in the oven.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

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