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Dessert

Economical Spiced Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake with raisins, spiced with ginger, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sweetened with brown sugar and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Economical Spiced Ginger 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  3. Beat in the eggs, then mix in the molasses and warm water with baking soda.

  4. Add the spices and mix well.

  5. Stir in the raisins or currants.

  6. Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.

Bake and glaze

  1. Pour the batter into a greased 8x12 inch baking pan.

  2. Bake for 1 hour on the top shelf of the oven.

  3. To glaze, mix powdered sugar with boiling water and vanilla until smooth, then spread over the cake immediately after baking.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the batter so the cake rises.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Black molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and deep sweetness with a slight acidity.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps keep the crumb tender.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to develop. Overmixing makes the cake tough and dense, so stop as soon as no dry flour streaks remain.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Marjoramfits less well

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