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Dessert

Fruit Cake

A baked cake made with butter, brown sugar, molasses, sour milk, spices, eggs, flour, and dried fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,377 recipes. Both carry alpha-terpineol, which smells lilac, floral. The science ↓

Fruit 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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and dark brown sugar.

  2. Add the grated nutmeg, ground cloves, ground mace, ground cinnamon, cooking molasses, and sour milk. Stir well.

  3. Beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the brandy.

  6. Alternate adding the sifted flour and beaten egg whites.

  7. Dissolve the baking soda and mix it in.

Add the fruit and line tins

  1. Toss the currants, raisins, and citron with 2 tablespoons of flour.

  2. Fold them into the batter.

  3. Line two buttered baking tins with buttered parchment paper.

Bake and store

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for two hours.

  2. Cool in the tins.

  3. Store in an airtight container.

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. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

  3. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Dark brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake and fruit together.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk and molasses acid to lift the batter.
Cooking molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and deep, slightly bitter sweetness.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven for two hours. This dense, fruit-heavy batter needs gentle, steady heat so the center sets fully while the outside does not scorch or dry out.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, molasses, raisin, milk, nutmeg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, molasses, raisin, milk, nutmeg. 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.

More fruit cake recipes

White 89Black 40Christmas 29Eggless 27Molasses 23Apple 17 See all 952 →

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