Skip to main content
Dessert

Blackberry Jam Cake

A sweet cake made with blackberry jam, butter, sugar, flour, eggs, sour milk, baking soda, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Blackberry 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.

Make the batter

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

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

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

  4. Stir in the blackberry jam and sour milk.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon.

  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.

Bake and cool

  1. Divide the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let the cakes cool before frosting.

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

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

  3. Blackberry + allspicetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Blackberry + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together203 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the cake set and hold its rise.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Blackberry jam
Adds fruit flavor, sweetness, and moisture to the crumb.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.

The step that matters

Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense. Mix only until just combined so the crumb stays tender.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk, nutmeg, allspice. 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.

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesBlackberry JellyBlackberry Jelly34 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes