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Dessert

Molasses Sponge Cake

A moist sponge cake flavored with molasses, flour, milk, butter, baking soda, eggs, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Molasses Sponge Cake

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Molasses Sponge Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine molasses and butter, and beat well.

  3. Add 2 cups of flour and mix.

  4. Stir in the milk.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in vinegar and add to the mixture.

  6. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then add to the mixture.

  7. Gradually add the remaining flour and mix until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a buttered tin and bake.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter 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

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness to the cake.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and help bind the batter while giving it lift.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the vinegar and molasses to release gas, so the cake rises.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the crumb.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softens the texture of the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in vinegar and add to the mixture. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Adding it dissolved in vinegar and mixing promptly spreads the gas through the batter so the cake rises evenly in the oven.

“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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