Skip to main content
Dessert

Confederate Fruit Cake

A dense fruit cake made with molasses, dried fruit, lard, baking soda, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,429 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Confederate Fruit Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour and molasses together.

  2. Add the parboiled and chopped dried fruit to the mixture.

  3. Melt the lard and stir it into the batter.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar and add it to the mixture.

  5. Combine all ingredients until well mixed.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes.

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. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,652 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness to the batter.
Dried fruit
Adds chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the cake moist.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic vinegar and molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Vinegar
Acidifies the batter so the baking soda reacts and lifts the cake.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar and add it to the mixture.. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Once combined, the batter should be baked promptly so the gas is trapped and the cake rises properly.

“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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes