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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with white and dark batters swirled together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. 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. 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

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

Make the batters

  1. In a bowl, cream together the white sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the sour cream and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.

  4. Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, mixing until just combined.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  6. Gently fold the egg whites into the white batter.

  7. For the dark batter, cream together the brown sugar, molasses, and butter.

  8. Add the sour cream and mix well.

  9. Combine the flour and baking soda, then add to the dark batter.

  10. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and mix into the dark batter.

Marble and bake

  1. Pour the dark batter into a greased pan first, then layer the white batter on top.

  2. Swirl the batters together with a knife for a marbled effect.

  3. Bake for 30-40 minutes or 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb when creamed with the sugar.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the light white batter.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and mild acidity that keeps the crumb soft.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep sweet flavor to the dark batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to make the cake rise.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites into the white batter. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a dense, heavy crumb.

“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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