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Dessert

Guava Marmalade Cake

A cake made with guava marmalade, buttermilk, flour, sugar, butter, baking soda, eggs, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Guava Marmalade Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. Cream the sugar and butter together.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, guava marmalade, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda dissolved in the buttermilk.

  3. Gradually mix in the flour until well combined.

  4. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 1 hour.

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.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. 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

Guava marmalade
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture, and gives the cake its distinctive flavor.
Buttermilk or sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda so the cake rises and stays tender.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a soft, tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the buttermilk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in the buttermilk before adding it spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises uniformly instead of forming dense or soapy patches.

Swap the guava

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Guavathe original

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