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Dessert

Blackberry Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, eggs, flour, sugar, blackberry preserves, and spices, topped with an icing of powdered sugar and preserves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Blackberry and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 362 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Blackberry 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. Beat the eggs separately.

  3. Add the yolks to the butter and sugar, and beat until creamy.

  4. Mix in the sweet cream and sifted flour.

  5. Add the baking soda and cream of tartar with the remaining flour.

  6. Stir in the spices and mix well.

Bake and ice

  1. Pour the batter into jelly tins and bake until golden.

  2. For icing, beat the egg whites and gradually add powdered sugar and blackberry preserves.

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. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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

Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the batter and whites, beaten separately, add lightness and structure to the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so baking soda reacts properly, and stabilizes the beaten egg whites.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the batter.
Blackberry preserves
Adds fruit sweetness and flavor to the cake and icing.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites for the icing. Whites must be beaten until they form stiff peaks before sugar is added gradually. Underbeaten whites stay runny and the icing will not hold, while overbeaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the blackberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, flour, sugar, cream, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, flour, sugar, cream, cinnamon. 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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