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Dessert

Spice Cake

A spiced rye cake with citron and raisins baked in a standard oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Spice Cake

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 ↓

Spice 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

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

  2. In a bowl, mix together the rye flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and salt.

  3. In another bowl, combine the light syrup, fat, eggs, dark syrup, and milk.

Make and bake the cake

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

  2. Fold in the chopped citron and raisins.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30–40 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.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Rye + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,320 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rye + cinnamontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Rye flour
Provides the structure of the cake crumb, with less gluten than wheat flour.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help set the structure as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Light syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, keeping the crumb tender.
Dark syrup
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper, molasses-like flavour.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the finished cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the citron and raisins. Fruit is heavy and can sink to the bottom of the batter. Folding gently keeps the batter's air and rise intact, and tossing the fruit in flour first is a common way to help it stay suspended.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rye, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, syrup, egg, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rye, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, syrup, egg, milk. 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.

More spice cake recipes

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