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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating sweet and molasses mixtures, baked to a marble pattern.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the two batters

  1. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of white sugar until light and fluffy.

  2. Mix in ½ cup of sour cream or buttermilk, 3½ cups of flour, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

  3. In another bowl, cream together 2 cups of brown sugar and 1 cup of butter.

  4. Stir in 1 cup of molasses, 5 cups of flour, and ½ cup of sour cream or buttermilk.

  5. Add 7 egg yolks, 1 grated nutmeg, 2 tablespoons of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of cloves, 1 tablespoon of allspice, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda.

  6. Fold in the 7 egg whites into the first mixture.

Bake

  1. Layer the two mixtures in a greased cake pan and swirl with a knife.

  2. Bake for about 1 hour 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into the light batter to add lift and an airy crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and tenderness to the dark batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep sweetness to the dark batter.
Butter
Provides fat for tenderness and flavour in both batters.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream or buttermilk to help the cake rise.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites; overmixing deflates them and produces a dense cake rather than a light one.

“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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