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Dessert

Twelfth Cake

A fruit cake made with butter, almonds, currants, raisins, candied peel, and spices, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Twelfth Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and cream the butter until smooth.

  2. Sift the sugar and flour separately.

  3. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately until fluffy.

  4. Clean and dry the currants.

  5. Blanch the almonds.

  6. Slice the candied peel.

Make the batter

  1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.

  2. Mix the eggs with the white wine and brandy.

  3. Add the creamed butter gradually.

  4. Stir in the remaining ingredients, including the orange flower water and minced raisins.

  5. Mix well for 30 minutes.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 2 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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed butter adds richness and a tender crumb to the cake.
Eggs
Beaten eggs provide structure and lift, setting the crumb as the cake bakes.
Flour
Flour forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Currants
Currants add moisture and chewy fruit pockets throughout the cake.
Almonds
Blanched almonds add texture and a nutty flavour to the cake.

The step that matters

Mix well for 30 minutes. Thorough mixing distributes the fat, eggs and dry ingredients evenly, so the batter bakes to a uniform, stable crumb rather than streaky or dense patches.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, almond, sugar, flour, white wine, egg, brandy. 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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