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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

A sweet loaf cake with raisins, currants, molasses, spices, baked in two loaves and frosted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mansfield, W. H., & co., Putnam, Conn., pub. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Ribbon Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake batter

  1. Mix two and a half cups of sugar, one cup of butter, one cup of sweet milk, one teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, four cups of flour, and four eggs.

  2. Reserve a third of the mixture, and bake the remainder in two loaves of the same size.

Make the fruit layer

  1. Add to the reserved third one cup of raisins, one-fourth pound of citron, one cup of currants, two tablespoons of molasses, and one teaspoon each of all kinds of spice.

  2. Bake the mixture in a tin the same size as the other loaves.

Assemble and frost

  1. Put the three loaves together with the white of an egg or jelly, placing the fruit leaf in the middle.

  2. Frost the loaf.

Make the leaf

  1. Mix one and a half cups of sugar, three-fourths of a cup of butter, three eggs, three tablespoons sweet milk, and one heaping teaspoon Royal Baking Powder.

  2. Add sufficient flour to roll.

  3. Roll and sprinkle with sugar and a little mace.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

953Calories
28 gProtein
26 gFat
151 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Macenot 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 Mansfield, W. H., & co., Putnam, Conn., pub. [from old catalog]. 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Provides the structure that holds the cake 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 to the crumb.
Royal baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps brown the crust while baking.
Raisins
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness to the fruit layer.

The step that matters

Putting the three loaves together. The filling must be spread evenly so the layers stack flat and the cake slices cleanly. The layers need a sticky binder, such as egg white or jelly, to hold together.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Currantthe original

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

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