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Dessert

Striped Cake

A two-layer cake with a light batter and a spiced batter, baked in separate pans and layered together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Striped Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the sweet milk and mix until combined.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

  6. Divide the batter in half. To one half, add the raisins, molasses, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little more flour if needed.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the light batter into two greased cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Pour the spiced batter into two greased cake pans and bake for the same time.

  3. Once cooled, layer the cakes, alternating between the light and spiced layers, and spread icing between each layer.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air that helps the cake rise and gives a tender crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter and helping it set as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light texture.
Molasses
Adds moisture, depth of flavour and a darker colour to the spiced layers.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and baking powder. Gradually adding the dry mix keeps the batter smooth and evenly aerated. Overmixing once flour is in develops gluten, which can make the cake tough.

Swap the clove

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

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

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