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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A layered baked cake with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and mixed dried fruits, nuts, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Fig and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 519 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. 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 a pan 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.

  4. Stone the dates.

  5. Cut the dates and the figs into small pieces.

  6. Blanch and chop the almonds.

  7. Cut the citron and lemon peel into thin slices, then cut them into small pieces.

  8. Mix the fruit (except peel).

  9. Dredge with 3 tablespoons of flour.

  10. Dredge the citron and lemon peel with flour.

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter.

  2. Add the sugar.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolk.

  4. Add the beaten egg white.

  5. Add the lemon juice.

  6. Add the grated lemon rind.

  7. Beat thoroughly.

  8. Add the liquid.

  9. Add the sifted flour alternately, beating well.

  10. Add the fruit and nuts.

Layer and bake

  1. Put a layer of the mixture into the pan.

  2. Put a layer of the peel.

  3. Repeat until the pan is two-thirds full.

  4. Finish with the cake mixture on top.

  5. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 to 3 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. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps set the crumb structure as it bakes.
Flour
Builds the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown in the oven.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.
Almonds
Add texture and a nutty flavour that holds up during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the sifted flour alternately, beating well. Flour should be folded in gently and only until combined. Overbeating after the flour goes in develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense rather than tender.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, fig, sugar, almond, egg, flour, coffee. 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 fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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