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Spice Cake

A spiced cake with raisins and a sugar‑water filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Spice Cake

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 ↓

Spice 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the beaten egg yolks with the water and add to the creamed mixture.

  4. Stir in the vanilla extract.

  5. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and spices.

  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  7. Fold in the beaten egg whites, reserving 2 for the filling.

  8. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, cook the granulated sugar and ½ cup water until it threads in cold water.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites and beat until stiff.

  3. Fold in the ground raisins and vanilla extract.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Vanilla + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed with liquid and set by heat.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and moisture; whites are folded in to lighten the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to help the cake rise.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and, as a hot syrup, helps the whites set into a stable mixture.
Cinnamon
Gives the cake its warm, spiced aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the filling syrup. The sugar syrup must reach the thread stage before it is poured over the whites. Hot syrup cooks the egg whites and gives the filling its stable, glossy body; undercooked syrup stays loose and overcooked syrup turns sticky or hard.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, vanilla, egg, cinnamon, flour, clove. 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.

More spice cake recipes

Raisin 13Molasses 12Eggless 6Chocolate 5Golden 4Christmas 3 See all 307 →

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