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Dessert

Loaf Cakes

A sweet loaf cake made with strawberry preserves, molasses, spices, and butter, baked or steamed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Loaf Cakes

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl.

  2. Add the molasses, baking soda, spices, and beaten eggs; mix well.

  3. Dust the strawberry preserves with some flour to prevent sinking, then fold them into the mixture.

  4. Gradually add more flour until the batter reaches a thick consistency.

  5. Beat the mixture with your hands for 15 to 20 minutes.

Cook the loaf

  1. Steam the batter in a covered pan for 4 hours.

  2. Alternatively, bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 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. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and a dark, rich flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Strawberry preserves
Adds fruit sweetness and moisture, and flavour to the loaf.
Flour
Gives the batter its body and sets the crumb as it cooks.

The step that matters

Dusting the strawberry preserves with flour. Flour coats the sticky fruit pieces so they are less likely to sink to the bottom of the batter as it cooks, helping them stay evenly distributed through the loaf.

Swap the strawberry

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Strawberrythe original

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