Skip to main content
Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made by swirling dark and light batters together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Marble Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dark batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. For the dark batter, cream together ½ cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar.

  3. Add 4 egg yolks and beat for a few minutes.

  4. Mix in 2½ cups flour sifted with 1 teaspoon Royal Baking powder.

  5. Stir in ½ cup milk and 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

Make the light batter

  1. For the light batter, cream together ½ cup butter and 1 cup sugar.

  2. Add 4 egg whites and beat for a few minutes.

  3. Mix in 2½ cups flour sifted with 1 teaspoon baking powder.

  4. Stir in ½ cup milk and 1 teaspoon lemon extract.

Bake and serve

  1. Layer the dark and light batters in a baking pan and swirl together.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat to the dark batter, helping it bind and stay moist.
Egg whites
Add lift and structure to the light batter, keeping the crumb light.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture and molasses flavor, and deepens the color of the dark batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and become airy.

The step that matters

Layer and swirl the batters. Swirling too much blends the dark and light batters into one uniform color, losing the marbled pattern. Light, minimal swirling keeps distinct streaks that remain visible after baking.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

More marble cake recipes

Chocolate 23 See all 221 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes