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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake made with a light batter and a dark molasses batter, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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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.

Make the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup white sugar and ½ cup softened butter.

  3. Add ½ cup milk and 3 egg whites, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and 2 cups flour.

  5. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until smooth.

  6. In a separate bowl, cream together ½ cup brown sugar and ¼ cup softened butter.

  7. Stir in ½ cup molasses, ¼ cup milk, grated nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar.

  8. Add 2 cups flour and 3 egg yolks, mixing until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. In a greased cake pan, alternate layers of the light and dark batter.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 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. 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake tenderness and a rich texture.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift to the light batter as it sets in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture to the dark batter and help bind it.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and cream of tartar to help the cake rise.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweetness to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Alternating the light and dark batter. Layering the two batters in a pan without mixing them keeps the marbled pattern distinct. Overmixing blends the batters into one even color and can toughen the crumb by developing gluten in the flour.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, cream, flour, molasses. 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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