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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake with alternating white and dark batters, baked to a marble pattern.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Marble 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.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. Cream together the butter and white sugar.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.

  4. Mix the baking powder into ½ cup of flour.

  5. Combine the creamed mixture with the sweet milk and remaining flour.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  7. For the dark part, mix brown sugar, molasses, sour milk, and egg yolks with butter.

  8. Dissolve baking soda in the milk and molasses mixture.

  9. Add the spices to the dark mixture.

Bake

  1. Layer the white and dark batters in a baking pan to create a marble effect.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the white batter and give it an airy structure.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets the crumb as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and adds richness and tender texture.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness to the dark batter.
Egg yolks
Add richness, fat and emulsifying power that help bind the dark batter.

The step that matters

Layer the white and dark batters. Pour the batters in loose spoonfuls rather than mixing them fully, so they stay in distinct swirls. Overmixing blends them into an even brown cake and loses the marble pattern.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

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