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Dessert

Cup Cake

A sweet cake made with eggs, flour, brown sugar, butter, cream, molasses, nutmeg, and baking soda, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cup Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs and gradually add the brown sugar.

  2. Mix in the cream, then add the melted butter in small amounts.

  3. Stir in the molasses and grated nutmeg, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour and finally add the dissolved baking soda.

Bake

  1. Bake immediately at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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
Beaten eggs add structure and help the batter bind and rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a soft, tender crumb.
Melted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, sweet flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Bake immediately after adding the baking soda. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets acidic ingredients like molasses. Waiting before baking lets that gas escape, so the cake may rise less and turn out denser.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

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