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Dessert

Neapolitan Cake

A layered cake with alternating light and dark batter, containing raisins, currants, molasses, coffee, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Neapolitan 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 batters

  1. In a bowl, cream together 2 cups sugar and ½ cup butter until light and fluffy.

  2. Add 1 cup milk and mix well.

  3. Gradually add 3 cups flour and the whites of 4 eggs, along with 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, and mix until smooth.

  4. In another bowl, combine 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup strong cold coffee, 2 eggs, ½ cup butter, ½ cup molasses, and 2½ cups flour.

  5. Stir in 1½ cups stoned raisins, 1 cup floured currants, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon ground cloves, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and ½ teaspoon ground mace.

Bake

  1. Grease and flour cake pans, then pour in the white batter and black batter alternately.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Frost and assemble

  1. For frosting, beat the whites of 2 eggs and gradually add powdered sugar until desired consistency.

  2. Layer the cakes, alternating dark and light, with frosting in between.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the light and dark cake layers together.
Eggs
Add structure and lift, and the whites help the batter set around the fruit.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and acidity that gives the dark batter its colour.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the dark batter rise.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the egg whites, helping the light batter rise and keep a fine texture.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Fruit-heavy batters with molasses can dry out quickly when overbaked, while underbaking leaves the centre wet and gummy. Testing the centre keeps the layers moist and set.

“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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