Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Molasses Frosted Cream Cakes
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.
Prepare the dough
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mix the moist sugar, ammonia, and lard into an easy dough with the molasses and enough water to achieve the right consistency.
Roll out the dough to 1 inch thick.
Cut the dough with square or long square cutters.
Bake and finish
Bake until golden, then while still hot, wash the cakes with icing to allow it to dry.
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.
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Moist sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
- Lard
- Provides fat that makes the dough tender and rich.
- Ammonia
- Breaks down into gas in the oven, helping the cakes rise and lighten.
- Molasses
- Adds deep sweetness, moisture, and a dark colour and flavour.
The step that matters
Icing the cakes while still hot. Hot cakes let the icing dry and set on the surface. If the cakes cool first, the icing may dry unevenly or fail to bond well.
“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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