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Dessert

Spiced Fig Cake

A spiced cake made with butter, milk, sugar, flour, baking powder, egg yolks, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, vanilla, figs, and a boiled icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Fig Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the cake

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

  5. Divide the batter into three pans. Add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and vanilla to one pan.

  6. Bake all layers until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

Prepare the figs and icing

  1. Simmer the chopped figs in a little water until tender, then drain and dry on a plate.

  2. For the icing, use ⅔ cup sugar for each egg white, beating until stiff peaks form.

Assemble

  1. Assemble the cake by layering the spiced cake with boiled icing and figs.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the layers to rise.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture and emulsifying power to the batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps create a tender texture when creamed with butter.
Figs
Add moisture, natural sweetness and chewy body to the filling.

The step that matters

Beating the icing to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be beaten until stiff peaks form so they hold air and give the icing its light, stable structure. Underbeaten whites stay runny and soak into the layers.

Swap the clove

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

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

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