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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating light and dark batters made from butter, sugar, flour, eggs, spices, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. 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, cream together 1 cup of butter and 3 cups of sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add ½ cup of cream or milk and the 7 egg whites, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, and 3½ cups of flour.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.

Make the dark batter

  1. For the dark part, cream together 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of brown sugar, and 1 cup of molasses.

  2. Stir in 2 tablespoons of cinnamon, 1 tablespoon each of cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, and ½ cup of cream or milk.

  3. Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda and the 7 egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine 5 cups of flour with the dark mixture.

Bake

  1. Butter your pan and layer the dark batter, then add a tablespoon of light batter, alternating until all batters are used.

  2. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whip-free structure and lift that helps the light batter set into a tender crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture to the dark batter and help it bind.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in both batters.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.
Molasses
Gives the dark batter its colour, moisture and deep sweetness.

The step that matters

Alternating the light and dark batters. Spooning the two batters in layers, rather than mixing them, keeps the marbled pattern distinct. Stirring blends the colours and makes the cake a uniform brown.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cream, egg, flour, molasses, 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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