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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with butter, raisins, currants, dates, almonds, citrus peel, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 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

  1. Line the pans with three layers of paper, buttering only the top layer.

  2. Seed the raisins and tear them into quarters.

  3. Wash and dry the currants.

  4. Stone the dates and cut them into small pieces.

  5. Blanch and chop the almonds.

  6. Cut the citron and lemon peel into thin slices and then into small pieces.

  7. Mix the nuts and fruit (except peel) and dredge with ¼ cup of the flour.

  8. Dredge the citron and lemon peel with flour.

  9. Mix and sift the remaining flour with the spices.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter.

  2. Add the sugar and beaten egg yolks.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites, lemon juice, and rind.

  4. Add the liquid and sifted flour alternately, beating well.

  5. Fold in the fruit.

Bake

  1. Put a layer of the mixture into the pan.

  2. Put a layer of the peel.

  3. Repeat until the pan is two-thirds full.

  4. Finish with the cake mixture on top.

  5. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 3 to 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Dates + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks and whites add structure and richness as the batter sets in the oven.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Sets the batter's structure so the heavy fruit stays suspended rather than sinking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown during the long bake.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the cake soft after baking.
Almonds
Add fat, texture and a nutty flavor that complements the spices.

The step that matters

Dredge the fruit and peel in flour before folding them in. Flour coats the pieces so they bind to the batter and are less likely to sink to the bottom of the pan during the long bake.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, raisin, sugar, egg, dates, flour, 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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