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Dessert

Molasses Cup Cake

A moist cake made with molasses, sugar, butter, flour, milk, raisins, spices, baking soda, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Molasses Cup 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Beat the eggs until light.

  3. Roll the raisins in some of the flour.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the molasses.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs, molasses with baking soda, spices, milk, flour, and raisins to the mixture. Mix until well combined.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. 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.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 rich, slightly bitter sweetness to the cake.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and adds tenderness and richness.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and moisture as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming with the butter for texture.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the molasses. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the acidic molasses before mixing spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, flour, milk, raisin, 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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