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Dessert

Cherry Cake

A moist cake made with flour, eggs, butter, brown sugar, molasses, spices, baking soda, salt, and dried cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Cherry 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

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

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  3. Stir in the molasses, allspice, cinnamon, baking soda mixture, and salt.

  4. Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.

  5. Fold in the dried cherries.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and a dark color with a robust flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Mixing only until combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and dense.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, butter, sugar, molasses, cinnamon, cream. 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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