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Dessert

Dolly-varden Cake

A sweet, spiced cake with raisins and figs, finished with a lemony icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 23 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Dolly-varden 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.

Make the dark batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter, then add molasses and milk, mixing well.

  3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  5. Fold in the egg, egg yolks, raisins, and figs.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Make the light batter

  1. For the light part, cream together the sugar and butter, then add the milk and beaten eggs, mixing well.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder.

  3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture along with lemon juice and rind.

  4. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, boil water and sugar until thick.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites and beat until cool.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set with heat.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise and become light.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweet flavor to the dark batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake, tenderizes the crumb, and helps browning.

The step that matters

Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites. The syrup must be hot and boiled to the right thickness. Pouring it slowly while beating cooks the egg whites gently, producing a stable, glossy foam instead of a runny or deflated one.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, molasses, milk, 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, milk, 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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