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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made by alternating and swirling light and dark batters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Marble 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 the light batter

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In another bowl, cream together sugar and ½ cup butter until light and fluffy.

  4. Add ½ cup sweet milk, 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon lemon juice to the butter mixture. Mix well.

Make the dark batter

  1. In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, brown sugar, ½ cup butter, ⅓ cup sweet milk, 2 cups flour, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon allspice, ½ teaspoon cloves, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 2 teaspoons cream of tartar. Mix until smooth.

Marble and bake

  1. Spoon the light and dark batters alternately into a greased cake pan.

  2. Swirl a knife through the batter to create a marbled effect.

  3. Bake for 30-40 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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the light batter and give the cake an airy structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture to the dark batter and help bind its crumb.
Butter
Provides fat for tenderness and flavor in both batters.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and lemon juice to release gas that lifts the batter.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the dark batter and adds moisture and a deeper, molasses-like flavor.

The step that matters

Swirling the batters. Over-swirling blends the light and dark batters into an even color, losing the marble pattern. A few loose passes with the knife keep the layers distinct while the batter still rises evenly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream, cinnamon. 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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