Skip to main content
Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made by alternating dark and white batters in a pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Marble 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 oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dark batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together brown sugar and ½ cup butter.

  2. Add sour milk, molasses, 2½ cups flour, and egg yolks. Mix well.

Make the white batter

  1. In another bowl, cream together white sugar and ½ cup butter.

  2. Add milk, 2½ cups flour, and egg whites. Mix well.

Assemble and bake

  1. Add 1 teaspoon baking powder to each cup of flour.

  2. In a greased pan, alternate layers of dark and white batter.

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

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

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Egg yolks and whites add richness and set the batter into a firm, tender structure.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor, and is creamed with sugar to trap air.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deeper caramel-like flavor to the dark batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a robust flavor that distinguishes the dark batter.

The step that matters

Alternate layers of dark and white batter. Pour the two batters gently in separate layers so they stay distinct; vigorous spreading or mixing blends them and erases the marbled pattern.

“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.

More marble cake recipes

Chocolate 23 See all 221 →

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes