Skip to main content
Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with brown and white batters, spiced with allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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 spice batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together ½ cup butter, ½ cup molasses, 1 cup brown sugar, and 4 egg yolks.

  3. Add ½ cup sweet milk, 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon allspice, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon cloves. Mix well.

Make the white batter

  1. In another bowl, cream together 1½ cups white sugar and ½ cup butter.

  2. Add 4 beaten egg whites and ½ cup sweet milk. Mix well.

  3. Stir in 2 cups flour and 1 large teaspoon baking powder until combined.

Bake

  1. In a greased loaf pan, alternate layers of the spice and white batter.

  2. Bake for about 50-60 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. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to both batters, carrying flavor and softness through the crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the spice batter into a smooth, tender crumb.
Egg whites
Beaten light, they add air and lift to the white batter for a lighter texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping both batters rise and become light.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness to the spice batter.

The step that matters

Alternating the spice and white batter in the pan. Both batters must go in as distinct layers so they bake into a marbled pattern. Mixing them together blends the colors and flavors into one uniform cake.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

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

More marble cake recipes

Chocolate 23 See all 221 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipes