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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake made with alternating white and dark batter mixtures.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

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 white batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 3 cups white sugar. Add 5 cups flour, ½ cup sweet milk, 6 egg whites, and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Mix well.

Make the dark batter

  1. In another bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 2 cups brown sugar. Stir in 1 cup molasses and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Add 1 cup sweet milk, 6 egg yolks, and 1 whole egg. Mix in 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Add flour to make a soft batter.

Layer and bake

  1. In a greased pan, layer the white mixture, then the dark mixture, stirring slightly with a spoon. Continue layering until the pan is full, finishing with the white mixture on top.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven 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 + clovetop 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. 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the cake set and hold its crumb as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and color to the dark batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the dark batter rise and lighten.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to help the white batter rise.

The step that matters

Layering the two batters. Stirring too much blends the light and dark batters into an even brown color, losing the marbled pattern. Only a slight swirl with a spoon keeps the two batters distinct while still letting them bake together.

Swap the clove

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

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

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