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Ginger Cake

A moist cake made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, baking soda, sour milk, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Cake

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a pan, combine molasses, brown sugar, and melted butter.

  2. Add baking soda and stir until dissolved and foamy.

  3. Mix in sour milk with dissolved baking soda until foamy.

  4. Add beaten eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and flour. Stir until well blended.

Bake

  1. Pour into a baking dish and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moist texture and a deep, sweet flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
Flour
Provides the main structure of the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving and foaming the baking soda. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and reacted with the acidic sour milk before baking. If it is not mixed in well, the cake may rise unevenly or have a bitter, soapy patch.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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

More ginger cake recipes

Soft 45Molasses 13Hard 6Sponge 5Yorkshire 5Honey 4 See all 129 →

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