Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Black 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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, eggs, sugar, molasses, butter, lard, spices, baking soda, and milk until well combined.
Pour the batter into prepared baking pans.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the batter that sets as the cake bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown during baking.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and a dark color to the cake.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor.
- Lard
- Adds fat that contributes to a tender, moist crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the cake rise.
The step that matters
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Baking is the step most likely to go wrong. A dense, moist batter can look set on the outside while the center is still raw, so testing the center with a toothpick confirms the cake is fully baked.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, sugar, molasses, butter, ginger, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, sugar, molasses, butter, ginger, cinnamon. 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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