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Dessert

Ginger Cup-cake

A moist ginger-flavored cupcake made with molasses, butter, brown sugar, spices, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cup-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).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  3. Add the molasses and eggs, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and baking soda.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk.

  2. Mix until smooth and well combined.

  3. Pour the batter into greased cupcake tins.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20-25 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.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 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. Molasses + sugartop 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. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, sweet flavor to the cupcakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and carries flavor through the batter.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cupcakes brown.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cupcakes bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to make the cupcakes rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Alternating the dry ingredients with the milk. Adding the dry ingredients in portions, alternating with the milk, keeps the batter evenly combined. Adding everything at once can overmix the flour, developing too much gluten and making the cupcakes tough.

Swap the clove

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

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

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