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Dessert

Tutti Frutti Cake

A moist chocolate cake with raisins and pecans, baked in two layers and topped with icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Tutti Frutti Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the sugar and butter together.

  2. Add the beaten egg and re-cream the mixture.

  3. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together three times.

  4. Take about 3 tablespoons of the sifted dry ingredients and cream with the creamed mixture.

  5. Alternately add the cold water and remaining dry ingredients.

  6. Add the melted chocolate and beat the dough well.

  7. Fold in the floured raisins and chopped nuts.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in two small layers in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C).

  2. Set the layers together with your desired filling, such as mock caramel icing.

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 + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chocolate + pecanstop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Butter + pecanstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,416 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and stays light.
Bitter chocolate
Adds deep flavour and colour to the batter.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture pockets throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the cold water and dry ingredients alternately. Adding the liquid and flour in alternating portions keeps the batter smooth and well emulsified. Adding it all at once can cause lumps and uneven texture in the finished cake.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, chocolate, egg, raisin, flour. 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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