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Dessert

Scotch Ginger Bread Cake

A moist ginger bread cake made with molasses, honey, butter, and spices, baked at 300°F for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Scotch Ginger Bread Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. In a large bowl, cream the butter.

  2. Make a well in the flour and pour in the molasses, honey, and creamed butter.

  3. Add ground ginger, caraway seeds, allspice, orange peel, blanched almonds, and baking soda.

  4. Mix all ingredients together to form a dough of moderate consistency.

  5. Work the dough well and then add tartaric acid.

Bake

  1. Place the dough in a buttered pan.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 2 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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Allspice + orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Caraway + allspicetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the dense dough together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and the dark color typical of gingerbread.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the cake stay tender and keep well.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic ingredients to release gas, helping the cake rise and lighten.
Tartaric acid
Acidifies the dough so it reacts with the baking soda to help it rise.

The step that matters

Adding the tartaric acid. Tartaric acid should be added after the dough is worked, so it reacts with the baking soda during baking rather than releasing its gas too early and being lost before the cake sets.

Swap the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, ginger, allspice, orange, butter, almond, honey):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, ginger, allspice, orange, butter, almond, honey. 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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