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Dessert

Ginger Cakes

A sweet cake made with molasses, lard or butter, buttermilk, baking soda, ground ginger, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Boil the molasses in a skillet.

  2. Pour the boiling molasses into a large tin bread pan.

  3. Add the baking soda and ground ginger to the pan.

  4. Boil the buttermilk in the skillet.

  5. Pour the buttermilk over the molasses mixture.

  6. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  7. Add the lard or butter last and mix well.

Shape the cakes

  1. Once cool, mold the dough with flour.

  2. Cut the dough into cakes.

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. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 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

Orleans molasses
Provides the dark color, sweetness and much of the characteristic flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to release gas, lightening the cakes.
Buttermilk
Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and contributes moisture and tenderness.
Lard or butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together into a stiff dough.

The step that matters

Add the baking soda and ground ginger to the pan. Baking soda must be well distributed in the hot molasses so it reacts evenly with the acidic buttermilk. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that can taste bitter and cause uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, buttermilk, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, buttermilk, flour. 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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