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Dessert

Berry Cake

A moist cake made with eggs, sugar, molasses, milk, butter, flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and berries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Berry 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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sugar, molasses, and milk.

  2. Melt the butter and add it to the mixture.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until well combined.

  5. Fold in the berries gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a large loaf pan or two shallow pans.

  2. Bake for about 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 bakes.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses acid to lift and lighten the batter.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweetness with mild acidity.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich, moist crumb.
Berries
Add moisture, tartness, and bursts of fruit flavor through the cake.

The step that matters

Fold in the berries gently. Overmixing develops gluten and can crush the berries, making the cake tough and streaky. Folding keeps the batter light and the fruit intact.

“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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