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Dessert

Black Cake

A dense, spiced fruit cake made with raisins, citron, molasses, and spices, baked slowly at low temperature.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Black Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. In a bowl, rub together the butter and sugar until creamy.

  3. Add the egg yolks and part of the flour, then mix in the spices.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg whites.

  5. Stir in the molasses, which will darken the cake and reduce the flour needed.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer the batter in a buttered pan lined with white paper, alternating with layers of dredged raisins and citron until the pan is two-thirds full.

  2. Bake for nearly 4 hours.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites fold in air for lift, while yolks add richness and help bind the batter.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the heavy fruit and batter together as the cake sets.
Raisins
Add moisture, chewiness and sweetness distributed through the cake.
New orleans molasses
Darkens the cake, adds deep sweetness and flavour, and reduces the flour needed.
Powdered white sugar
Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps give the cake its light texture.

The step that matters

Layering the batter and fruit. Heavy raisins and citron sink toward the bottom if layered unevenly or left unsupported, so the fruit should be dredged and spread in even layers with batter to keep it distributed through the cake.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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