Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ribbon 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and sweet milk, and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.
Divide the batter in half. To one half, add the lemon or almond extract.
Bake and layer
Pour the first half into two square or oblong pans and bake until golden.
To the second half, add molasses, raisins, citron, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and flour.
Pour this mixture into two pans and bake until done.
Once baked, layer the cakes while warm with jelly in between.
Frost the top as desired.
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.
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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,577 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter to produce gas, helping the cakes rise.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, depth of flavor, and darker color to the spiced half.
- Raisins
- Add moisture and chewy sweetness to the spiced batter.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and mixing only until smooth keeps the batter from becoming overworked. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour, molasses, raisin):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour, molasses, raisin. 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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