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Dessert

Black Cake

A dense fruit cake made with raisins, currants, spices, wine, brandy, and optional molasses, baked slowly at low heat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Black 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. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Line a 4-quart milk pan with buttered white paper.

Make the batter

  1. Rub the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the yolks of the eggs and part of the flour, along with the spices.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Add the remaining flour, wine, and brandy, and mix thoroughly.

  5. If desired, add molasses for a darker, moister cake.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the mixture and dredged fruit in the pan until filled 3-4 inches high.

  2. Bake for 3½ 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, with the whites adding lift when beaten and folded in.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar gives the batter a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the heavy batter and fruit together as it bakes.
Powdered white sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the butter cream into a smooth, aerated base.
Raisins
Add sweetness and moisture, and their chewy texture gives the cake body.
Brandy
Adds aroma and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites trap air that gives lift and lightness to a very dense fruitcake. Folding gently keeps those bubbles intact, while stirring vigorously would deflate the batter and leave the cake heavier.

Swap the currant

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

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

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