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Dessert

Fruit Jelly Cake

A cake made with sugar, butter, sweet milk, eggs, flour, baking powder, molasses, raisins, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg, baked and served with jelly or frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Fruit Jelly Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Combine two cups sugar, two-thirds cup butter, same amount of sweet milk, four eggs, three cups flour, and three teaspoonfuls baking powder.

  2. Stir the mixture together until well blended.

  3. Divide the batter into three equal parts.

Flavour and bake

  1. Into one part stir one tablespoonful of molasses, one cup chopped raisins, one teaspoonful each of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  2. Bake the batter.

Assemble and serve

  1. Put the baked parts together and serve with jelly or frosting.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

811Calories
20 gProtein
19 gFat
141 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Grape1/2 cup (76g)62
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7

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

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure to the layers as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake layers.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and lighten.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep, sweet flavour to one layer.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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

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