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Dessert

Jam Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, flour, spices, eggs, sour cream, and blackberry jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Jam 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 oven to 350°F (175°C).

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

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour cream and add it to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the sifted flour, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  5. Beat the egg yolks and fold them into the batter.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.

  7. Fold in the blackberry jam until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Eggs
Yolks add richness and the whipped whites lighten the batter so the cake rises and stays tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Blackberry jam
Adds sweetness, fruit flavor and moisture to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sour cream
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tang.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that makes the cake rise. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently and only until no white streaks remain.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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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