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Dessert

Layer Cake

A sweet cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, sour milk, flour, molasses, spices, baked and layered with frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Layer Cake

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Layer 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and baking powder together.

  3. In another bowl, cream the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the sour milk, flour, molasses, baking soda, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon to the creamed mixture, then mix until well combined.

  5. Pour the batter into two greased cake pans.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let the cakes cool, then layer them with soft frosting, placing the dark part at the bottom.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a lighter crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crust while creaming aerates the batter.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the leavening to help the cake rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the cake.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into the pans and bake to a toothpick test. Batter that is overmixed or underbaked can sink or turn gummy. Baking soda and baking powder begin releasing gas as soon as they are mixed, so the batter should go into the oven promptly, and doneness is best judged by a clean toothpick.

Swap the clove

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

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

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