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Dessert

Bride-cake

A rich, spiced cake made with butter, eggs, flour, sugar, currants, almonds, sweetmeats, wine, brandy, raisins, and orange‑flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Bride-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Wash the butter in plain water and then in rose-water; beat it to a cream.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately for one hour each.

  3. Keep the flour, sugar, and spices warm by the fire.

  4. Mix the dry ingredients together.

  5. Strain the eggs into the butter and mix well.

  6. Beat the egg whites to a strong froth and add to the mixture.

  7. Combine the sweet wine and brandy, then pour into the butter and egg mixture.

  8. Gradually add the dry ingredients, beating thoroughly.

  9. Mix in the chopped raisins and orange-flower water carefully.

  10. Beat the mixture for at least one hour.

Bake

  1. Prepare a well-buttered hoop and line it with buttered paper.

  2. Fill the hoop with batter up to three-quarters full to allow for rising.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for three 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Eggs
Yolks and whipped whites give the cake its lift and an airy, sponge-like crumb.
Butter
Beaten to a cream, it traps air and adds richness and a tender texture.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the rich batter together as it bakes.
Currants
Add chewy fruitiness and moisture throughout the cake.
Sweet wine and brandy
Add moisture and sweetness, and their aroma flavours the cake.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown as it bakes.

The step that matters

Fill the hoop only three-quarters full. The batter rises considerably in the oven. Overfilling can cause it to spill over or bake unevenly, while leaving room lets the heavy batter expand as the eggs and air in it set.

Swap the currant

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

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

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