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Dessert

Tom and Jerry Cake

A spiced fruit cake with raisins, currants, molasses, and spices baked in a loaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Tom and Jerry 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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the milk and eggs, mixing well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

  4. Divide the batter in half.

Assemble and bake

  1. To one half, stir in the raisins, currants, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and molasses.

  2. Grease two loaf pans and pour the fruit mixture into the bottom of one pan.

  3. Pour the plain batter on top of the fruit mixture.

  4. Bake for about 1 hour 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes lighter.
Raisins
Add moisture and concentrated sweetness to the fruit layer.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and a darker color to the fruit layer.

The step that matters

Pouring the fruit layer into the pan. The fruit mixture is heavier than the plain batter, so it should sit on the bottom. Spread it evenly so the layers bake at the same rate and the cake rises without sinking unevenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, raisin, currant):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, raisin, currant. 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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