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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating light and dark batters, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ↓

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.

Make the white batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually add white sugar, continuing to beat until well combined.

  4. Cream butter and milk together, then mix in cream of tartar and baking soda.

  5. Gradually add flour to the butter mixture, mixing until smooth.

Make the dark batter

  1. Combine egg yolks, brown sugar, molasses, sour cream, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, and flour, mixing until well combined.

Marble and bake

  1. In a greased cake pan, alternate layers of the light and dark batter.

  2. Swirl with a knife to create a marbled effect.

  3. Bake for 45–50 minutes 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. 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. 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. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the light batter its lift and structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and tenderness to the dark batter and help bind it.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the light batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color to the dark batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and sour cream to make the cake rise.

The step that matters

Swirl with a knife to create a marbled effect. Swirling too much blends the light and dark batters into an even brown color, losing the marble pattern. A few gentle passes keep distinct layers.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

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