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Dessert

Neapolitan Cake

A cake made with butter, sugar, milk, corn starch, flour, egg whites, baking powder, brown sugar, molasses, coffee, baking soda, spices, raisins, currants, citron, nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 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 ↓

Neapolitan 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 batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 2 cups white sugar until light and fluffy. Add 1 cup sweet milk, 1 cup corn starch, 2 cups flour, 4 egg whites, and 2 teaspoons baking powder. Mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup butter, ½ cup molasses, and ½ cup strong coffee. Stir in 2½ cups flour, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves, ½ cup raisins, ½ cup currants, ¼ cup citron, and grated nutmeg.

Bake

  1. Layer the white and dark batter in a greased cake pan. Bake for 30-40 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb through fat.
Egg whites
Provide structure and lift to the light batter.
Eggs
Bind the dark batter and add structure and richness.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep sweetness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises.

The step that matters

Layering the white and dark batter. Pouring the two batters in carelessly can blend them together, so the distinct white and dark layers that define a Neapolitan cake may not form. Spread each batter gently so they stay separate in the pan.

“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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