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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating light and dark batters made from sugar, butter, milk, flour, baking powder, eggs, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Marble 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 light batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 ½ cups sugar and ½ cup butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add ½ cup sweet milk, 2 ½ cups flour, and 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, mixing well.

  4. Beat the whites of 4 eggs until stiff peaks form. Fold the beaten whites into the batter.

Make the dark batter

  1. In another bowl, mix 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup molasses, ½ cup butter, ½ cup sweet milk, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, 2 ½ cups flour, and the yolks of 4 eggs.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ nutmeg, ½ teaspoon cloves, and ½ teaspoon allspice to the dark batter.

Bake

  1. In a greased cake pan, alternate spoonfuls of the light and dark batters.

  2. Bake for 30–40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 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
Whipped whites add lift and an airy crumb, while yolks enrich the dark batter.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in both batters.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the dark batter brown.
Molasses
Colors the dark batter and adds moisture and deep, sweet flavor.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten whites into the batter. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring hard deflates them, which leads to a denser cake with less rise.

“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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