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Dessert

Ginger Cake

A moist cake made with butter, molasses, flour, spices, milk, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Cake

Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat the eggs separately.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the molasses and beaten yolks to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the flour, baking soda, spices, milk, and brandy.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until done.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 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
Adds fat that makes the cake rich and tender in texture.
Eggs
Provide structure and lift, with the whites adding airy volume to the batter.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour, and depth of sweetness and flavour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed butter hold air for a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites, so the cake rises and stays light. Stirring vigorously would deflate the foam and leave a denser cake.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

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