Skip to main content
Dessert

Plum Gingerbread

A baked cake made with molasses, mace, sour milk, raisins, flour, baking soda, salt, eggs, topped with chocolate icing and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Plum Gingerbread

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 batter

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

  2. In a bowl, mix molasses, mace, sour milk, and eggs.

  3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and raisins.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for about 30‑40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Once cooled, cover the top with chocolate icing and flavor with vanilla.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Raisin + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together782 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 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

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and the characteristic gingerbread flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help give the crumb structure as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and mixing gently limits gluten development, keeping the crumb tender rather than tough. Overmixing can also deflate the gas produced by the baking soda.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, milk, raisin, flour, egg, chocolate, vanilla):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, raisin, flour, egg, chocolate, vanilla. 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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes