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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating light and dark batters, baked and iced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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

Make the batter

  1. Cream one scant cup of butter with two cupfuls of sugar.

  2. Add four eggs beaten very lightly, one cup sweet milk, one cup water, three cups flour, two teaspoons baking powder, flavor to taste; mix until smooth.

  3. Divide the batter: put one-fourth into a separate bowl and color pale pink with fruit coloring; color another quarter deep brown with melted chocolate.

Bake and finish

  1. Line a deep cake pan with paper.

  2. Spoon the light batter into the pan, then spoon the dark batter, alternating spoonfuls.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven until done.

  4. When nearly cold, cover with icing.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

988Calories
29 gProtein
35 gFat
137 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0
Cakenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the cake a tender texture and rich flavor.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb soft and moist.
Sweet chocolate
Colors the dark batter and adds chocolate flavor to create the marbled contrast.

The step that matters

Alternating the light and dark batter spoonfuls. Spooning the two batters in alternating dollops, without stirring them together, keeps them as separate colors that bake into a marbled pattern. Overmixing or heavy spooning blends them into one uniform color.

“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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