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Dessert

Neapolitan Cake

A layered cake with a dark batter of raisins, molasses, and spices, and a white batter of sugar, cornstarch, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. 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.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, mix the dark part ingredients: eggs, raisins, brown sugar, currants, molasses, baking soda, butter, cinnamon, coffee, cloves, flour, and mace.

  3. In another bowl, combine the white part ingredients: white sugar, flour, butter, cornstarch, milk, egg whites, and cream of tartar.

Bake and assemble

  1. Grease and flour cake pans. Pour the dark batter into one pan and the white batter into another.

  2. Bake both layers until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

  3. Once cooled, layer the dark and white cakes, alternating them.

  4. Frost the cake as desired.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Eggs
Bind the dark batter and add structure as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped into the white batter to add lift and a light, tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and coffee acidity to help the dark layer rise.
Cream of tartar
Stabilises the egg whites and helps the white layer keep its lift.
Cornstarch
Softens the flour's gluten, giving the white layer a fine, tender texture.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and a dark colour to the dark layer.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, raisin, sugar, molasses, butter, cinnamon, coffee. 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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