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Dessert

Blackberry Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, preserved blackberries, sour cream, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the blackberries or jam and sour cream.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and enough flour to form a stiff batter.

  6. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just combined.

  7. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let cool, then layer with icing between the cakes.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, beaten to stiff peaks, lighten and give the cake its structure.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the butter cream into a light, aerated base.
Preserved blackberries or jam
Adds fruit flavour, sweetness and moisture to the batter.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity, which helps keep the crumb tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and fruit to help the cake rise.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a dense, flat cake.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, cream, nutmeg, allspice, 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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