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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating plain and spiced batter, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sour cream and mix well.

  4. In another bowl, sift together the flour and baking soda.

  5. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined.

  6. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  7. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

  8. Divide the batter into two parts.

  9. To one part, add the brown sugar, molasses, milk, and spices, mixing well.

Bake

  1. In a greased pan, layer the plain batter and the spiced batter alternately.

  2. Finish with a layer of the plain batter on top.

  3. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + sugartop 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Whites beaten to stiff peaks lighten the batter and help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that leavens the cake.
Molasses
Adds moisture, depth of flavor, and color to the darker spiced batter.
Sour cream
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stir too vigorously and the whites deflate, losing the air that lightens the batter. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain, so the cake rises evenly and stays fine-textured.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, sugar, flour, egg, cinnamon, clove. 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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