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Dessert

Spice Cake

A moist cake flavored with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, molasses, raisins, currants, and nuts.

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Add the sour milk and egg yolks, mixing well.

  3. Gradually add the flour mixed with baking soda and the remaining ingredients.

  4. Fold in the egg whites last.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into two layer cake pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks bind the batter, and whipped whites are folded in to lighten its crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and carries the spice flavour.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites last. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Overmixing them after folding deflates the foam, leaving a dense, flat cake.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, butter, clove, milk, egg, molasses. 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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