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Dessert

Blackberry Cake

A sweet cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, flour, blackberry jam, sour cream, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

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 ↓

Blackberry 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until well combined.

  3. Add the butter and mix until smooth.

  4. Stir in the flour, blackberry jam, sour cream, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg. Mix well until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  2. Once baked, layer the cakes and spread icing between them.

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. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Blackberry + allspicetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once the batter sets.
Blackberry jam or preserves
Adds fruit sweetness, moisture, and flavor to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and jam to lift the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.. Baking too long dries the cake, while underbaking leaves a wet, sunken center. The toothpick test shows when the structure has set through the middle.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, cream, allspice, 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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