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Dessert

Spice Cake

A moist cake flavored with nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon, made with brown sugar, butter, eggs, sour milk, flour, and baking soda.

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

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Spice 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 large bowl, mix the brown sugar (or white sugar and syrup) with the butter until smooth.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the grated nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice, and cinnamon.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the sour milk and baking soda, then add to the mixture.

  6. Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 fat that gives the cake a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay soft.
Sour milk
Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with baking soda to lift the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.

The step that matters

Combine the sour milk and baking soda, then add gradually. Baking soda reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas for rising. Mixing the flour only until just combined avoids developing too much gluten, which would make the cake tough.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, nutmeg, clove, allspice, 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.

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