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Dessert

Muffin Spice Cake

A moist spice cake made with molasses, stale bread, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Muffin 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

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix molasses, water, sugar, and lard until well combined.

  3. Add the stale cake or bread, and mix until incorporated.

  4. In another bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, and allspice.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.

  2. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. 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.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich, sweet, slightly bitter flavor.
Flour
Provides structure as the starches set during baking.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic partner that helps baking soda react and supports rising.
Stale cake or bread
Adds body and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding dry ingredients slowly and stirring only until smooth helps distribute the leavening evenly and keeps gluten development limited, so the cake stays tender rather than tough or unevenly risen.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, bread, flour, cream, cinnamon, allspice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, bread, flour, cream, cinnamon, allspice. 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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