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Molasses Cake with Raisin Filling

A moist molasses cake with a raisin filling and egg white icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Molasses Cake with Raisin Filling

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 batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix sugar, molasses, butter, and cold water.

  3. Add egg yolks and beat until well combined.

  4. Stir in baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

  5. Gradually add flour until the batter is soft but can be baked.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.

Bake and ice

  1. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the icing, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Prepare boiled icing and fold in the chopped or ground raisins.

  4. Spread the icing over the cooled cake.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the cake.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter; whites whip into the stiff icing.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acidity to lift and lighten the cake.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the batter is soft but can be baked. Adding flour gradually lets you stop at a soft, pourable batter. Too much flour makes the cake dense and dry, while too little leaves it too loose to hold its structure.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, egg, cinnamon, allspice, flour. 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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