Skip to main content
Dessert

Clove Cake

A moist cake flavored with molasses and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Clove Cake

Why it works: Molasses and buttermilk work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 526 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Clove 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 batter

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

  2. In a mixing bowl, combine molasses, buttermilk, and melted butter.

  3. Add baking soda, ground cloves, and the egg. Mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or 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. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Buttermilk + buttertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + clovetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep color and flavor to the cake.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Egg
Adds structure and binds the batter together.
Ground cloves
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness with a toothpick. Baking soda and acidic ingredients set the cake's structure as it bakes, and the cake is ready when a toothpick comes out clean. Pulling it out too late dries the crumb, while pulling it too early can leave the center wet and sunken.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, buttermilk, butter, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, buttermilk, butter, egg. 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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesButtermilk PieButtermilk Pie12 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipes