Skip to main content
Dessert

Alleghany Soft Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake made with molasses, sugar, sweet milk, butter, egg, baking powder, ginger, cloves, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Alleghany Soft Ginger Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine molasses, granulated sugar, sweet milk, butter, and egg.

  3. Mix in baking powder, ground ginger, and ground cloves.

  4. Gradually stir in enough flour to create a soft batter.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake slowly 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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Molasses + sugartop 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. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and deep color and flavor to the cake.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the cake a tender crumb.
Butter
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the main structure that sets the cake as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake slowly until done. A low oven lets the center set gently without over-browning or drying the edges. Molasses batters are moist and can take longer to set, so judge doneness by the center rather than the clock.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Clovethe original

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

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes