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Dessert

Ginger Drop Cakes

A sweet, moist cake flavored with ginger, molasses, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Drop Cakes

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Drop Cakes

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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  3. Add the molasses and mix well.

  4. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then add them to the mixture.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and add it to the mixture along with the salt and ginger.

  6. Gradually stir in the flour until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake until golden, then dust with powdered sugar while hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lift the cakes and help them brown.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cakes their body and structure.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Butter
Adds fat for flavor and a tender crumb.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the cakes soft and tender.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water. Baking soda needs an acidic partner like molasses to release gas and lift the batter. Dissolving it fully first spreads it evenly, so the cakes rise uniformly instead of showing pockets or bitter spots.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, butter, 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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