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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered cake with figs, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, allspice, cinnamon, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the white batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together 2 cups sugar and ⅔ cup butter.

  3. Add ⅔ cup sweet milk.

  4. Add 3 cups flour. Mix well.

  5. Gently fold in the 8 egg whites.

Make the gold mixture

  1. For the gold part, cream together 1 cup sugar and ¾ cup butter.

  2. Mix in ½ cup sweet milk.

  3. Mix in 1½ teaspoons baking powder.

  4. Mix in 7 beaten egg yolks.

  5. Mix in 1 whole egg.

  6. Add 1 teaspoon allspice.

  7. Add cinnamon to taste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Pour half of the gold mixture into a pie tin.

  2. Arrange the halved figs on top.

  3. Cover with the remaining gold mixture.

  4. Bake until golden and set.

  5. Frost while warm.

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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Allspice + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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

Egg whites
Folded in to lighten the batter and give it an airy structure as it sets.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness, colour and moisture to the gold layer, helping it set.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the gold mixture so it rises and becomes light.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Figs
Add moisture and natural sweetness, sitting within the gold layer.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air that gives the batter lift. Stirring or beating them in vigorously knocks that air out, leading to a denser, flatter cake.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour, cinnamon, 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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