Name: Blackberry Jam Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups light brown sugar; 1 cup butter; 4 eggs; 6 tablespoons sour cream; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 2 grated nutmegs; 4 cups all-purpose flour; 2 cups blackberry jam

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry Jam 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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter until smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sour cream, baking soda, ground cloves, and grated nutmeg.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.
Fold in the blackberry jam until evenly distributed.

Bake and cool

Divide the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let the layers cool before icing.

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.

Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + blackberrytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together212 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

Butter: Creams with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
Eggs: Add structure and binding so the batter holds together as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream and jam to lift the cake as it bakes.
All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the cake once its proteins set in the oven.
Blackberry jam: Adds sweetness, fruit flavor, and moisture to the crumb.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and acidity that tenderizes the crumb and activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Mixing flour only until combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and dense.

Swap the clove

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

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Allspicefits about as well
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cream, nutmeg, flour, blackberry. 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.