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Dessert

Spice Cake

A molasses-based cake with sugar, butter, lard, eggs, milk, spices, currants, raisins, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Spice Cake

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Mix the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the molasses, sugar, and butter-lard mixture until well combined.

  2. Add the eggs and thick milk, and mix until smooth.

  3. Stir in the baking soda, ginger, and ground cloves.

  4. Fold in the currants and raisins.

  5. Gradually add flour until the batter is stiff.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven 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.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 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

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture, and the characteristic deep flavor of the cake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake and makes the batter stiff.
Butter and lard
Add fat for tenderness and moistness in the crumb.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the batter is stiff. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the batter's consistency. Too much flour makes the cake dense and dry, while too little leaves it weak and overly moist.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, egg, milk, ginger, clove. 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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