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Dessert

Spice Cake

A spiced cake with raisins, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and a boiled frosting of egg white and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Landmarks Club · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Spice Cake

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 ↓

Spice Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Mix the first batter

  1. Combine one cup sugar, half cup butter, third cup milk, one cup flour, two eggs, one and a half teaspoons baking powder, half teaspoon cinnamon, half teaspoon cloves.

  2. Bake in slow oven.

Mix the second batter

  1. Combine two cups brown sugar, scant half cup butter, two eggs (save one white for frosting), one cup sour milk, one teaspoon soda, two and a half cups flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg to taste.

  2. Make two layers.

Frost and finish

  1. For filling, make a boiled frosting of egg white and three-quarters cup sugar.

  2. Add one cup chopped raisins.

  3. Use as two separate cakes if no frosting.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

920Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
141 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
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.

By Landmarks Club. 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.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavour in the crumb.
Soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas that lifts the batter.
Sour milk
Provides acidity that activates the soda and adds moisture to the batter.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture, softness and a deeper sweetness to the cake.

The step that matters

Baking the batter after the soda goes in. Soda reacts with the acid in sour milk as soon as they meet and releases gas. Getting the batter into the oven promptly keeps that lift in the cake rather than letting it fade.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon, milk, raisin, egg. 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.

More spice cake recipes

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