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Dessert

Mrs. Pride's Wedding Cake

A rich butter cake with raisins, currants, citron, spices, Madeira, brandy, rose water, and currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

Mrs. Pride's Wedding 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

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

  3. Stir in the grated nutmeg, prepared fruit, and rose water.

  4. Mix in the flour and then add the Madeira wine and brandy.

  5. Fold in the currant jelly until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for about 4 hours or until a toothpick inserted 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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
Raisins
Add moisture, chewiness and concentrated sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake for a long, slow time. A dense fruit cake this large needs a long, low bake so the center sets before the outside over-browns. Checking doneness with a toothpick at the center prevents underbaking or drying.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Currantthe original
  4. Applefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, raisin, madeira wine, brandy. 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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