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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating light and dark batters made from flour, sugar, molasses, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Marble 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batters

  1. In a bowl, mix 1 cup sour cream, 5 cups all-purpose flour, and 1 teaspoon baking soda.

  2. In another bowl, combine 2 cups brown sugar, 1 cup molasses, 1 cup sour cream, and 1 cup butter.

  3. Add the yolks of 8 eggs and 1 whole egg to the mixture, then stir in ⅓ cup wine and mixed spices.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the whites of 8 eggs until stiff peaks form.

  5. Fold the egg whites into the batter.

  6. In a different bowl, mix 1 cup white sugar, 4 cups butter, 4 cups buttermilk, and the whites of 3 eggs.

  7. Add 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 4 teaspoons baking soda, and 2 cups all-purpose flour to this mixture.

  8. In another bowl, combine 4 cups brown sugar, ½ cup butter, 4 cups molasses, 4 cups milk, 4 teaspoons nutmeg, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 4 teaspoons allspice.

  9. Add 2 cups all-purpose flour and mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a greased two-pound mold, alternate layers of the light and dark batter.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together.
Egg whites
Whipped whites trap air, adding lift and a light crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic dairy to release gas that makes the cake rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and a dark color to the dark batter.
Buttermilk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and helps keep the crumb tender.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Folding the whipped egg whites in gently keeps the trapped air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring vigorously would deflate the foam and leave a dense, heavy crumb.

“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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