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Dessert

Jam Cake

A sweet cake made with jam, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Jam 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

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

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

  3. Stir in the buttermilk and jam until combined.

  4. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Serve warm with sauce.

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. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and binding, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake once its starches set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, tenderizing the crumb and activating the baking soda.
Jam
Adds sweetness, moisture and fruity flavor throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Stirring the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Overmixing once flour meets liquid develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense. Stir only until combined so the crumb stays tender.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, buttermilk, egg, pepper, nutmeg. 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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