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Dessert

Election Cake

A yeast-based fruit cake with raisins, currants, citron, spices, and brandy.

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

Election Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups of sifted flour and ¼ teaspoon salt.

  2. Dissolve ⅔ of a Fleischmann’s Yeast Cake in warm milk or water and add to the flour mixture.

  3. Add enough warm milk to form a soft dough and let it rise until very light.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, cream 1 cup of butter and gradually add 2 cups of sugar.

  2. Beat in the yolks of 7 eggs, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Combine the butter mixture with the risen dough.

  4. Stir in 25 cups of flour to create a reliable cake batter.

  5. Fold in 1 pound of raisins, 1 pound of currants, and 1 pound of sliced citron, all well floured.

  6. Add 1 teaspoon of ground cloves, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon of maize.

  7. Mix in ½ pint of brandy or wine.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into pans and let it stand for 1 hour.

  2. Bake in a moderate 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter and fruit together as it bakes.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites add lift and a lighter crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating the flour and carrying flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps tenderize the crumb when creamed with butter.
Yeast cake
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light before the batter is made.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Let the yeast dough rise until very light. Yeast gives off gas that gives the dough lift. If it is underproofed, the cake will be dense, so the dough should be fully risen before the butter mixture is added.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, butter, egg, sugar, raisin, currant. 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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