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Dessert

Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake made with lard or butter, molasses, spices, lemon, and sour milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Ginger Cake

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 ↓

Ginger 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 batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the lard or butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the molasses, eggs, and sour milk, mixing well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and add it to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, lemon juice, and grated rind.

  6. Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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. 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

Lard or butter
Creams with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture when creamed with fat.
New orleans molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, robust sweetness that defines the cake.
Eggs
Provide structure and bind the batter together as it sets in the oven.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter and tenderize the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk and molasses to produce gas that makes the cake rise.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda and adding it to the batter. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it evenly in a little warm water and mixing it through the batter spreads the reaction, so the cake rises evenly rather than leaving pockets or bitter patches.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, egg, milk, cinnamon, clove. 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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