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Dessert

Raised Loaf Cake

A sweet loaf cake made from bread dough, raisins, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Raised Loaf 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.

Prepare

  1. Combine the bread dough, butter, sugar, eggs, milk, baking soda, molasses, ground cloves, and grated nutmeg in a large bowl.

  2. Beat the mixture well until fully combined.

  3. Fold in the raisins until evenly distributed.

  4. Divide the mixture into two greased bread pans.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread dough
Forms the bulk and yeasted crumb structure of the cake.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and browning in the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses' acidity to help the cake rise and lighten.
Raisins
Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the raisins until evenly distributed. Overmixing after the dough and eggs are combined can toughen the crumb and make the texture dense. Stir gently just until the raisins are spread evenly, so the batter stays light and the fruit doesn't sink.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, sugar, egg, milk, molasses, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, sugar, egg, milk, molasses, nutmeg. 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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