Name: Golden Spice Cake
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; ½ cup brown sugar; 1 egg; Yolks 4 eggs; ½ cup molasses; ½ cup milk; 2¼ cups flour; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon soda; ½ teaspoon clove; ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg; Few grains cayenne; Few gratings lemon rind

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 ↓

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Butter: Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender crumb.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay soft.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure, with the yolks adding richness.
Molasses: Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Adding the flour mixture. Flour should be mixed and sifted with the spices first so they distribute evenly. Overmixing after adding flour develops gluten and can toughen the cake.

Swap the clove

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6

Golden Spice Cake