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Dessert

Neapolitan Cake

A spiced raisin cake with coffee and molasses, topped with a brown sugar icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Neapolitan 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.

Make the cake

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

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

  3. Add the eggs, chopped raisins, cold coffee, and molasses; mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the cinnamon, cloves, allspice, baking soda, and flour.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30‑40 minutes.

Make the icing and finish

  1. For the icing, boil 1 cup of brown sugar with 6 teaspoons of water until thick.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the egg white and beat until cool and fluffy.

  3. Spread the icing over the cooled cake.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour when creamed with the sugar.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and coffee acidity to help the cake rise.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and caramel flavour to the cake and icing.

The step that matters

Beating the hot syrup into the egg white. Pouring the syrup in slowly while beating cooks the egg white gently into a stable, fluffy foam. Adding it too fast or letting it cool before beating can leave the icing runny or grainy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, raisin, coffee, molasses, cinnamon. 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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