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Dessert

Fig Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, butter, sugar, eggs, honey, spices, raisins, figs, almonds, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin 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 ↓

Fig 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 the batter

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

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

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the honey and spices to taste.

  5. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk.

  7. Fold in the raisins, figs, and almonds.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

  4. Fig + honeytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and adds richness and tenderness.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a firm, sliceable crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, browned crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter for an even texture.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk. Adding flour in portions alternated with liquid keeps the batter smooth and limits gluten development, which helps the cake stay tender rather than tough.

Swap the fig

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figthe original
  3. Coconutfits less well
  4. Peachfits less well

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