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Dessert

Sherry Ginger Cake

A moist cake flavored with sherry, ginger, and spices, topped with a boiled icing and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sherry Ginger 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and shortening.

  3. Beat in the egg.

  4. Add the spices and the sour milk in which the baking soda has been dissolved.

  5. Gradually add the flour and mix well.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into layer cake pans.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  3. For icing, combine boiled icing with chopped raisins and layer between the 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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness to the cake.
Shortening
Tenderizes the crumb by coating flour and trapping air when creamed with sugar.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk before adding it. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce gas. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises uniformly without bitter pockets or a flat, dense layer.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, molasses, sugar, egg, cinnamon, ginger, sherry):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, sugar, egg, cinnamon, ginger, sherry. 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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