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Dessert

Lafayette Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with butter, brown sugar, molasses, spices, orange zest, eggs, flour, and a leavening mixture of soda and tartaric acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Lafayette Gingerbread

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lafayette Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Cut up the butter and brown sugar in a deep pan.

  2. Stir to cream with a spatula.

  3. Add the molasses and warm milk, then mix in the ginger, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, and brandy.

  4. Sift in the flour.

  5. Beat the eggs until very light.

  6. Mix the eggs alternately with the flour into the butter mixture.

  7. Stir in the grated orange rind and juice.

  8. Mix thoroughly.

  9. Dissolve the Magic Soda and tartaric acid in lukewarm water.

  10. Stir the Magic Soda into the mixture.

  11. Add the tartaric acid.

  12. Do not exceed the prescribed amounts.

Bake

  1. Butter a large round or oblong pan.

  2. Pour in the mixture.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until thoroughly done, watching to prevent burning.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and lift to the batter as they set in the oven.
Fine flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its starches set during baking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb brown in the oven.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
West indian molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweet flavor.
Magic soda
Reacts with the acid to release gas, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Stir the Magic Soda into the mixture. Soda and tartaric acid release carbon dioxide only when combined in liquid, so the leavening must be mixed in promptly and evenly. Overmixing after that can knock out gas and make the cake dense.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, milk, ginger, cinnamon, 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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