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Dessert

Molasses Cake

A sweet cake made with sour milk, molasses, eggs, and flour, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Molasses Cake

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 ↓

Molasses Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the saleratus in the sour milk.

  2. Mix the sour milk, molasses, and eggs in a bowl.

  3. Add butter, lard, or pork gravy if desired.

  4. Stir in flour until the mixture has a soft-cake consistency.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until done, being careful not to over-bake.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + buttertop 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

Sour milk
Reacts with the saleratus to lift the batter and adds a tangy note.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweetness to the cake.
Saleratus
Releases gas when reacted with the sour milk, helping the cake rise.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
Flour
Builds the cake's structure so the batter sets into a soft crumb.

The step that matters

Avoid over-baking. Over-baking dries out the cake as moisture evaporates and starches and proteins set firm. Removing it once it is done keeps the crumb soft and moist.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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