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Dessert

Wedding Cake

A dense fruit cake made with flour, butter, sugar, dried fruits, brandy, molasses, and spices, baked in loaf pans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Wedding Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine flour, butter, sugar, citron, currants, raisins, prunes, dates, brandy, nutmeg, chocolate, molasses, and the grated rind of one lemon.

  2. In another bowl, beat the eggs separately until fluffy.

  3. Fold the beaten eggs into the mixture until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into prepared loaf pans.

  2. Steam the loaves for three hours, then bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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

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

  3. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Currant + raisintop 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
Beaten separately and folded in, they add lift and structure to the heavy batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the fruit and butter together as the cake sets.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb through fat that coats the flour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown its surface during baking.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the dense fruit mixture.
Molasses
Adds depth, moisture and a dark colour through its sugars.

The step that matters

Steam before baking. Steaming the dense, fruit-heavy loaves for three hours keeps the interior moist while the batter sets. Baking too early or too hot can dry the outside before the centre cooks through.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, currant, raisin, brandy, 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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