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Dessert

Christmas Spice Cake

A spiced cake made with raisins, molasses, sour cream, sugar, spices, flour, and baking soda.

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

Christmas Spice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Chop the raisins and coat them with flour.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and mix it with the sour cream.

Make the batter

  1. Stir the mixture briefly, then add the molasses and mix well.

  2. Incorporate the sugar, spices, raisins, and flour into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one and a half hours.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to lift and lighten the cake.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that helps browning.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moist.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and pockets of sweetness throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in hot water before mixing with the sour cream. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and evenly distributed so it reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses. Uneven distribution leaves dense spots or bitter patches in the finished cake.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, cream, molasses, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, cream, molasses, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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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