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Dessert

Molasses Cup Cakes

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, cinnamon, ginger, molasses, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Molasses Cup Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Beat the eggs very light, separating the yolks and whites, then add them to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the spices, then alternate adding the molasses and flour while stirring continuously.

  4. Beat the mixture well before adding the baking soda, and mix briefly afterward.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into well-buttered patty-pan tins.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven 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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cinnamon + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Add structure and richness, and their whites help lift and set the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acid to produce gas, helping the cakes rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that helps browning.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and carries the sugar when creamed.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they set.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the molasses, to release gas. Beating the batter well first distributes the ingredients evenly, and mixing briefly afterward avoids knocking out the gas bubbles and toughening the crumb.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour, cinnamon, 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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