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Dessert

Jam Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, flour, sugar, eggs, jam, baking soda, spices, and sour milk or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Jam 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).

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk or cream.

Mix and bake

  1. Gradually add the dry ingredients and the jam to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk mixture.

  2. Mix until just combined.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the cake's main structure once mixed and baked.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk or cream to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Jam
Adds sweetness, fruity flavor, and moisture to the crumb.
Sour milk or cream
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.

The step that matters

Mix until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Overmixing toughens the batter and can make the cake dense, so stir only until no dry flour streaks remain.

Swap the clove

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

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

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