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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A cake made with butter, powdered sugar, flour, egg whites, baking powder, figs, dates, almonds, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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White Fruit Cake

Why it works: Fig and dates work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

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

  3. Add the egg whites and mix well.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then gradually add to the mixture.

Add the fruit and bake

  1. Sift a little flour over the chopped fruit and nuts to prevent them from sinking.

  2. Fold the floured fruit and nuts into the batter.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  4. Bake slowly for about 2 ½ 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Fig + datestop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Fig + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Dates + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together217 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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
Creams with sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Provide structure and lift as the cake sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Figs
Add moisture and natural sweetness to the cake.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness, keeping the cake soft.

The step that matters

Dusting the fruit and nuts with flour. Heavy pieces of fruit and nuts sink to the bottom of a batter. A light coating of flour helps them grip the batter and stay evenly distributed while baking.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Datesthe original

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