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Dessert

Blackberry Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, sour milk, eggs, spices, blackberry preserves, and flour.

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 ↓

Blackberry 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

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

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add it to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the blackberry preserves, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.

  6. Gradually mix in the flour and beat well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan or layer cake pans.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center 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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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. Cinnamon + blackberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Blackberry preserves
Adds sweetness, fruit flavor and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in the sour milk before mixing spreads the leavening evenly, so the cake rises without holes or dense patches.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, cinnamon, allspice, 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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