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Dessert

Richest Fruit Cake or Black Cake

A dense fruit cake made with raisins, currants, citron, spices, sugar, butter, eggs, flour, and alcohol, baked slowly and aged.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 ↓

Richest Fruit Cake or Black Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fruit and batter

  1. Prepare the fruit by mixing the raisins, currants, and shredded citron.

  2. In a bowl, combine the spices, burnt sugar coloring, molasses, brandy, and lemon extract.

  3. In another bowl, cream together the sugar and butter, then add the eggs one at a time.

  4. Gradually mix in the flour until fully incorporated, then add the spice mixture.

  5. Dust the prepared fruit with flour and fold it into the batter.

Bake and rest

  1. Line two cake molds with buttered paper and divide the batter between them.

  2. Wrap the molds in greased paper and tie with twine to shield from heat.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 3 to 3 ½ hours.

  4. Let the cake sit for at least 3 to 5 days before cutting.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they are beaten into the creamed mixture.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and carries flavor through the creamed base.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the fruit and batter together as the cake bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it cream to a light, even base.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and a darker color to the cake.
Raisins
Add sweetness, chewy texture, and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Shielding the molds before baking. Long, low baking dries and over-browns the outside of a dense fruit cake, so wrapping the molds slows surface heat and helps the center cook through evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, mace, sugar, molasses):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, mace, sugar, molasses. 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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