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Bread

Bread Fruit Cake

A cake made from bread sponge, brown sugar, butter, egg, spices, raisins, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bread Fruit 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. In a bowl, combine the bread sponge, brown sugar, and creamed butter.

  2. Add the beaten egg and mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and enough flour to achieve a typical cake consistency.

  5. Gently fold in the seedless raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well-buttered pan.

  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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Bread sponge
Provides fermented flavour and a tender, moist crumb as the base of the batter.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the crumb feel soft.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sponge to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a caramel-like depth.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins and starches set.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and evenly mixed so it reacts with the acidic sponge throughout the batter. Unmixed pockets can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, sugar, butter, egg, allspice, nutmeg, flour. 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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