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Dessert

Black and White Marble Cake

A cake made by alternating white batter and brown batter with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and sliced citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

Black and White 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.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In another bowl, cream the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the sour cream, flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda to the butter mixture, mixing well.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  6. In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, brown sugar, molasses, sour cream, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and sliced citron.

Marble and bake

  1. Combine the two mixtures alternately in a prepared cake pan, creating a marbled effect.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the cake a light, airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to help the cake rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness to the dark batter.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity that tenderizes the crumb and activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the egg whites. Stirring hard would deflate the foam, leaving a denser cake with less rise.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

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