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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating white and brown batter, baked in a single pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Marble 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batters

  1. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup butter and 3 cups white sugar.

  2. Add 1 cup sweet milk and ½ teaspoon baking soda, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add 5 cups flour and fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. In another bowl, cream together 1 cup butter and 3 cups brown sugar.

  5. Stir in 1 cup molasses and 1 cup sour milk, then add 1 teaspoon baking soda.

  6. Beat in the 8 egg yolks and 1 additional egg, then mix in 4 cups flour and spices.

Bake

  1. In greased baking pans, layer the brown batter, then the white batter, finishing with the brown batter.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add tenderness and richness.
Eggs
Egg whites add lift and structure, while yolks add richness and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas for rising.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and the dark color of the brown batter.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites, which gives the batter lift. Stirring hard would knock out that air and make the cake dense.

“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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