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Dessert

Neapolitan Cake

A layered cake with a dark molasses and coffee base and a light butter‑sugar frosting, topped with a lemon icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 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 ↓

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 dark mixture

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together brown sugar, ½ cup butter, molasses, and coffee.

  3. Add 2½ cups flour, eggs, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, grated nutmeg, raisins, currants, and citron. Mix well.

Make the light mixture

  1. In another bowl, cream ½ cup butter and white sugar for the light part.

  2. Add sweet cream, corn starch, and 2½ cups flour. Mix well.

  3. Fold in the beaten eggs gently.

Bake and ice

  1. Layer the dark and light mixtures in a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. For icing, beat 2 eggs with 2 cups sugar, lemon rind, and juice until smooth.

  4. Spread icing over the cooled cake.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Coffee + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

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

  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 batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the batter so the cake rises.
Corn starch
Softens the crumb, giving the light layer a finer texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten eggs. Beaten eggs hold air that gives the light layer its lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and produces a denser cake.

Swap the clove

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

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

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