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Dessert

Spiced Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread cake made with molasses, spices, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Spiced Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, combine one cup of Porto Rico molasses, one cup of boiling water, butter the size of an egg, half a teaspoonful of ground cloves, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, one egg, one teaspoonful of ginger, half a teaspoonful of soda, a light half pound of flour, and a quarter of a cup of brown sugar.

  2. Melt the butter and stir it into the molasses.

  3. Add the spices, then the water.

  4. Sift the soda with the flour and add it last.

  5. Currants and raisins, stoned and chopped, may be added and are an improvement.

Bake

  1. Bake the cake in a loaf or in small moulds.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

757Calories
20 gProtein
18 gFat
127 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Cloves1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Waternot 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 Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Molasses
Provides sweetness, moisture and dark color, and its acidity reacts with the soda.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the crumb and carries the spice flavors.
Soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas that lifts the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the soda with the flour, last. Soda must be evenly spread through the flour and added at the end so it reacts with the acidic molasses during baking. Lumps or early mixing can leave dense spots or uneven rise.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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