Name: Soft Ginger Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ½ teaspoon baking soda; ⅔ cup butter; 2 eggs, well beaten; 1 tablespoon ginger; 1 cup sour cream; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 3 cups flour

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Soft Ginger Cake

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine molasses, baking soda, and butter. Beat until well mixed.
Add the beaten eggs, ginger, and sour cream mixed with baking soda. Stir to combine.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until just incorporated.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the ginger

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

Nutmegfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Capersfits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, egg, cream, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.