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Dessert

Neapolitan Cake

A layered cake with a dark loaf made from molasses, coffee, and dried fruit, and a light loaf made from butter, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 26 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Neapolitan 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 dark batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 1 ⅔ cups of brown sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add 1 cup of molasses and 1 cup of strong coffee, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine 4 ½ cups of sifted flour, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, 4 teaspoons of cream of tartar, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of cloves, 1 teaspoon of mace, 1 pound of raisins, 1 pound of currants, and ¼ pound of citron.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat 4 eggs and fold them into the batter.

  7. Pour the batter into pans with straight sides and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the white batter

  1. For the white cake, cream together 1 cup of butter and 4 cups of sugar.

  2. Add 2 cups of sweet milk and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine 4 ½ cups of sifted flour and 2 cups of corn starch.

  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, then fold in the 8 beaten egg whites and 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar.

  5. Pour the white cake batter into pans and bake until done.

Frost and assemble

  1. Once the cakes are cold, frost the black loaf with a mixture of 1 beaten egg white, the grated rind of 2 lemons, the juice of 3 lemons, and enough powdered sugar to make a thick frosting.

  2. Layer the black and white loaves, alternating them and frosting in between.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb as it is creamed with sugar.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and lift to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to help it rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, helping leavening work and stabilizing the egg whites.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only if they are beaten well and folded in gently. Overmixing deflates them, leaving the white cake dense instead of light.

“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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