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Dessert

Plum Cake

A baked cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, flour, raisins, currants, citron, spices, rose water, brandy, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum 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

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

  2. Seed and wash the raisins, then let them dry and flour them well.

Make the batter

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

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Stir in the rose water, brandy, and wine.

  4. Gradually add the flour and mixed spices, mixing until just combined.

  5. Fold in the citron, raisins, and currants.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan.

  2. Bake for 4 to 5 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.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  4. Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a lighter crumb.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as it sets in the oven.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, creamed texture with the butter.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Currants
Add small pockets of chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Creaming the butter and sugar. Beating butter and sugar until light and fluffy traps air that leavens the batter. Under-creaming yields a dense cake, while adding eggs too quickly can curdle the batter.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, currant, butter, rose, brandy, wine. 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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