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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

Ribbon Cake is a layered cake with raisins, nuts, and spices baked in a slow oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Ribbon Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.

  2. Separate the eggs.

  3. Beat the yolks until stiff and add to the creamed mixture.

  4. Sift the flour once, then measure the flour.

  5. Add baking soda, then sift the flour three times.

  6. Whip the egg whites to a froth, add cream of tartar, then whip the egg whites until very stiff.

  7. Add the milk and whipped egg whites to the creamed mixture.

  8. Stir in the flour and flavoring until smooth.

Make the fruit layer

  1. Take one-third of the batter.

  2. Mix in the raisins, hickory nuts, and spices.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake the fruit layer in one mold.

  2. Bake the remaining batter in two layers.

  3. Frost with your preferred icing.

  4. Place the fruit layer in the middle.

  5. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 10 minutes.

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it cream to a smooth, tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acid that stabilizes the whipped egg whites so they hold their volume.

The step that matters

Whip the egg whites until very stiff. Stiff whites hold air bubbles that give the cake its lift. Under-whipped whites deflate when folded into the batter, leaving a dense, flat layer.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, flour, sugar, milk, cream, 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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