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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with dark and white batters swirled together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Marble 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 batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and ½ cup softened butter for the dark part. Add ½ cup sour milk, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and 4 egg yolks. Mix well. Stir in 2½ cups flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon cloves, and ½ teaspoon allspice until combined.

  3. In another bowl, cream together 1½ cups sugar and ½ cup softened butter for the white part. Add ½ cup sweet milk and 4 egg whites. Mix until smooth. Stir in 2½ cups flour, 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Bake and serve

  1. Layer the dark and white batters in a greased cake pan and swirl with a knife.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Egg yolks and whites add richness and structure to the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the dark batter rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the white batter to lighten its texture as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps tenderize the crumb when creamed with butter.

The step that matters

Swirling the two batters. Over-swirling mixes the dark and white batters into an even color, losing the marble pattern. A few gentle passes with a knife keep the two colors distinct while the cake still bakes evenly.

Swap the clove

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

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

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