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Dessert

Spice Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, molasses, flour, sour milk, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Spice Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the sugar, then the ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon juice and rind.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in 1 tablespoon of cold water and stir it into the sour milk.

  4. Add the sour milk mixture and the beaten eggs to the other ingredients.

  5. Finally, add the flour and beat briskly for 5 minutes.

Bake

  1. Pour into a well-buttered pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 50 minutes.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and lemon to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that browns the crust.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and beating. Flour is added last and beaten briskly for 5 minutes, which develops gluten and gives structure. Overbeating after the flour is in can make the cake tough, while the baking soda's gas is already working, so the batter should be mixed promptly and then baked.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, flour, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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