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Dessert

Fig Cake

A layered fig cake with white and gold batters, topped with frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the sweet milk and flour, then fold in the egg whites.

  3. For the gold part, cream the sugar and butter, then add the sweet milk. Mix in the baking powder, flour, egg yolks, whole egg, allspice, and cinnamon.

Bake the layers

  1. In two long pie tins, pour the white batter and bake until set.

  2. In one pie tin, layer half the gold batter, then place the floured figs touching each other. Top with the remaining gold batter and bake until done.

Assemble and frost

  1. Once baked, layer the cakes with frosting while warm, placing the gold between the white layers, and cover with frosting.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together614 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

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

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

  4. Allspice + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

  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

Egg whites
Fold in to lighten the batter and give the white layers structure as they set.
Egg yolks
Add richness, colour and tenderness to the gold batter.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the heat so the batter rises and becomes light.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Figs
Add moisture and a jammy sweetness to the gold layer.

The step that matters

Baking the gold layer with figs. Figs release moisture and sugar as they bake, so the batter can turn soggy or sink if the layer is under-baked. Bake until the centre is set before layering, so the cake holds its shape.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

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