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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A sweet cake made with white sugar, butter, flour, mixed fruit, milk, egg whites, spices, raisins, currants, dates, citron, figs, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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White Fruit Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

White 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the flour and baking powder, mixing well.

  4. Stir in the mixed fruit and sweet milk.

  5. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  6. Add the cinnamon, cloves, raisins, currants, dates, citron, figs, and sliced almonds, mixing until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for 3 to 4 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks and folded in, they add air and lift to the batter as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and become airy.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff egg whites hold air that gives lift. Stirring them vigorously or overmixing deflates the foam, leaving a denser cake.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

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