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Dessert

Currant Cake

A large buttery cake with currants, raisins, candied citrus, almonds, nutmeg, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Currant 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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter with your hands until creamy, then add the sugar.

  2. Beat the yolks separately and the whites separately, then add the yolks and whites together.

  3. Gradually mix in the flour.

  4. Fold in the currants (or currants and raisins), nutmegs, candied citron, candied lemon peel, and ground almonds.

  5. Mix thoroughly for an hour.

  6. Add the brandy and liquor.

Bake and cool

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered cake tin lined with buttered paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 4 hours.

  3. Cool gradually.

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a rich, tender crumb.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites add lift and structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the heavy batter together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine, even texture.
Currants
Add moisture, chewy texture, and concentrated fruity sweetness throughout the cake.
Ground almonds
Add moisture, richness, and a nutty flavor that keeps the crumb tender.

The step that matters

Gradually mix in the flour. Adding flour slowly and mixing gently keeps the batter smooth and prevents overworking, which would toughen the crumb of a rich, heavy cake.

Swap the currant

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, nutmeg, lemon, almond. 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.

More currant cake recipes

Raisin 6Rich 5Lemon 3 See all 192 →

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