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Dessert

Hickory-nut Cake

A sweet cake made with brown sugar, butter, milk, molasses, flour, spices, hickory nuts, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Hickory-nut Cake

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 ↓

Hickory-nut 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 batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, butter, milk, molasses, and flour.

  2. Add baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves; mix well.

  3. Incorporate the beaten egg whites and hickory-nut meats last.

Bake

  1. Pour some of the white mixture into the pan, then alternate with the dark mixture until all is used.

  2. Bake 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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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

Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, giving the cake lift and a lighter crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown.
Molasses
Adds depth, moisture and a dark, spiced flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them in too hard deflates the foam, leaving a dense, flat cake.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, molasses, flour, cinnamon, clove. 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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