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Dessert

Neapolitan Cake

A layered cake with dark and white loaves flavored with coffee, molasses, spices, and fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Neapolitan Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dark cake

  1. Make the dark cake: combine butter, two cups of brown sugar, one cup of molasses, one cup of strong coffee, four and a half cups of flour, four eggs, two teaspoons of soda, two teaspoons of cinnamon, one teaspoon of cloves, one teaspoon of mace, one pound of raisins, one pound of currants, and a quarter pound of citron; bake in round pans with straight sides until the loaves are one and a half inches thick.

Make the white cake

  1. Make the white cake: combine one cup of butter, four cups of powdered white sugar, two cups of sweet milk, two cups of corn starch mixed with the flour, four and a half cups of sifted flour, the whites of eight eggs, and six teaspoons of baking powder; flavor slightly with bitter almonds; bake in the same pans as the dark cake to achieve the same thickness.

Assemble and frost

  1. After the cakes are cooled, spread a thick lemon frosting on each black loaf: whisk the white of one egg lightly, grate the rind of two lemons, add the juice of three lemons, and mix with powdered sugar until a thick frosting forms; lay the white and black loaves alternately and frost all over, using only lemon flavoring.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

978Calories
29 gProtein
27 gFat
158 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 12 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 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
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Coffeenot in our table0
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 Des Moines. Plymouth church. [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. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  3. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture and deepens the colour of the dark loaves.
Molasses
Adds dark colour, moisture and a rich, slightly bitter flavour to the dark cake.
Eggs
Provide structure as they set, binding the batter into a firm crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the white cake rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in both cakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the dark cake.

The step that matters

Baking the loaves to the same thickness. The dark and white loaves must be baked in the same pans to the same thickness so they stack evenly; uneven loaves bake unevenly and make the alternating layers sit unevenly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, coffee, clove, raisin, currant, butter, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, coffee, clove, raisin, currant, butter, milk. 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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