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Dessert

Spice Cake

A sweet, spiced dough cake baked at low temperature.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Spice 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 ↓

Spice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the sugar and molasses until well combined.

  3. Add the ginger, cinnamon, caraway seed, coriander seed, grated nutmeg, and saleratus, mixing thoroughly.

  4. Gradually work in flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out thin.

Shape and bake

  1. Cut the dough into small round cakes.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) 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.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Caraway + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the dough hold together when melted and cooled.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that promotes gentle browning.
Saleratus
Releases carbon dioxide as it reacts with acidic molasses, lifting the cakes and lightening the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the dough, making it stiff enough to roll and cut.

The step that matters

Working in the flour. Flour should be added gradually so the dough becomes stiff enough to roll thin without overworking it. Too much flour at once or excessive kneading can make the cakes dense and tough, since gluten develops as the dough is handled.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, caraway, nutmeg):

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, caraway, nutmeg. 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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