Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Molasses 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 the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add the molasses, sweet milk, ginger, salt, and baking soda to the mixture.
Mix in the flour gradually until fully incorporated.
Finally, add the well-beaten eggs and mix until smooth.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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 and richness as the cake sets.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color, and helps the cake brown.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while keeping it moist.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda with the molasses. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas for lift. Molasses supplies that acidity, so the soda should be mixed in with it promptly, while the batter is still being built, to get full rise before baking.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, molasses, sugar, milk, egg, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, sugar, milk, egg, flour. 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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