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Dessert

Sweet Cakes

A spiced cake made with raisins, currants, citron, molasses, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the eggs, sugar, and butter together.

  2. Add the molasses and sift in the flour and baking soda.

  3. Stir in the milk to form a batter.

Add the fruit and bake

  1. Cut the citron into thin strips and add the fruit and spices to the mixture. Stir well.

  2. Prepare your pans lined with buttered paper.

  3. Pour the mixture into the pans and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

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

  4. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that makes the cake rich and tender.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color with deep flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to help the cake rise and lighten.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter into a pourable mix.
Raisins
Add moisture, chewiness, and natural sweetness throughout the cake.
Currants
Add moisture, chewiness, and natural sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven. A low, steady heat lets the dense batter, heavy with fruit and molasses, cook through evenly. Higher heat would brown and set the outside before the centre is baked.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, milk, raisin, clove, 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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