Skip to main content
Dessert

Clove Cake

A moist cake flavored with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Clove Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Clove Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Chop the raisins.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together.

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

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.

  5. Fold in the chopped raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set with heat.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and trapping air when creamed with sugar.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the cake and adds moisture and a caramel flavor.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk.. Adding flour in portions alternated with liquid keeps the batter smooth and prevents overmixing, which would make the cake tough as gluten develops.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes