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Dessert

Thanksgiving Cake

A layered cake made with a coconut batter, egg white frosting, and layers of hickory nuts and figs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and fig are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,241 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

  1. Prepare the batter as you would for cocoa-nut cake.

  2. Bake five layers in jelly tins.

Make the frosting

  1. Beat the egg whites and mix in baking powder and powdered sugar for the frosting.

Fill and top the cake

  1. Mix rolled hickory-nut meats into the first layer.

  2. Mix fine-sliced figs into the second layer.

  3. Mix hickory-nut meats into the third layer.

  4. Mix figs into the fourth layer.

  5. Spread plain frosting on the top layer.

  6. Grate cocoa-nut over the frosting thickly.

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. Sugar + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cocoa + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Cocoa + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together54 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + meattop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,432 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten to air, they give the frosting lightness and a foamy structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the frosting mixture, helping it puff and stay light.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the beaten whites, sweetening the frosting and stabilising its texture.
Rolled hickory-nut meats
Add crunchy texture and a rich, nutty flavour between the layers.
Fine-sliced figs
Add moisture, chew and natural sweetness between the layers.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites for the frosting. Egg whites only whip into a stable foam when fully free of fat and yolk. Any grease or yolk prevents them from holding air, leaving the frosting dense and runny rather than light.

Swap the cocoa

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, meat, fig):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Pecansfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, meat, fig. 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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