Skip to main content
Dessert

Molasses Cake

A moist cake made with molasses, sugar, butter, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Molasses 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 ↓

Molasses 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, sugar, and butter until well combined. Stir in the boiling water gradually.

  3. Add the chopped raisins and beaten egg, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

Bake

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

  2. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  3. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, sweet flavor to the cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while keeping it tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as the cake sets.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift and lighten the cake.

The step that matters

Stirring in the dry ingredients. Mixing only until just combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender instead of tough and dense.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, raisin, egg, flour, cinnamon. 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 molasses cake recipes

Raisin 12Spiced 4Eggless 3 See all 205 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipes