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Dessert

Washington Cake

A moist cake made with sugar, molasses, butter, egg yolk, sour milk, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon, flour, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Washington 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 the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, melted butter, and egg yolk.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the cloves, cinnamon, sifted flour, and a little salt until well combined.

  5. Pour the batter into two greased cake pans.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let cool before frosting with white frosting.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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

Sour milk and baking soda
The acid in the sour milk reacts with the baking soda to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Sifted flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the batter so it sets as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, sweet flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and contributes to browning and tenderness.
Melted butter
Adds fat for moisture and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before mixing spreads the reaction evenly, so the cake rises uniformly instead of showing pockets or bitter patches.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, egg, milk, cinnamon, 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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