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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A dense cake made with butter, raisins, currants, dates, figs, almonds, citrus peel, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour 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 ↓

Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Line the pans with three layers of paper, buttering only the top layer.

  2. Seed the raisins and tear them into quarters.

  3. Wash and dry the currants, stone the dates, and cut them and the figs into small pieces.

  4. Blanch and chop the almonds, then cut the citron and lemon peel into thin slices and small pieces.

  5. Mix the nuts and fruit (except peel) and dredge with ¼ cup of the flour.

  6. Dredge the citron and lemon peel with flour.

  7. Mix and sift the remaining flour with the spices.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter, then add the sugar and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites, lemon juice, and rind; beat thoroughly.

  3. Add the liquid and sifted flour alternately, beating well, then add the fruit.

  4. Put a layer of the mixture into the pan, followed by a layer of the peel; repeat until the pan is two-thirds full, finishing with the cake mixture on top.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 8 to 4 hours.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  3. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Currant + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together276 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to form a tender, rich crumb and adds fat for flavour.
Eggs
Egg whites give lift and structure, while yolks add richness and binding to the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the heavy fruit and nuts in the cake.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the cake soft as it bakes.
Shelled almonds
Add texture and richness, and a toasty flavour when baked.

The step that matters

Dredging the fruit and peel with flour. Flour coating helps heavy pieces stay suspended instead of sinking to the bottom of the batter, so the fruit is spread evenly through the cake.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, raisin, sugar, egg, dates, flour, 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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