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Dessert

Soft Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake made with molasses, butter, sugar, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Soft Ginger Cake

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soft Ginger 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 batter

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

  2. In a saucepan, combine sugar, butter, molasses, ginger, and cinnamon. Heat until slightly warm.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in a small amount of boiling water and set aside.

  4. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy.

  5. Add the sour milk to the warm mixture, then stir in the beaten eggs and dissolved baking soda.

  6. Gradually add flour, mixing well until the batter is thick like cake batter.

  7. If using, dredge the raisins in flour and fold them into the batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 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. Cinnamon + flourtop 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
Beaten eggs add structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that keeps the cake soft.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and gives a rich flavor.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and contributes moisture and tenderness.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure once its proteins hydrate and set during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda and flour. Baking soda must meet the acidic sour milk and molasses in the batter, not sit in the pan, so the gas forms while the batter is still mixed. Stirring in flour too vigorously after that can develop gluten and toughen the cake, so mix only until the batter is smooth.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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