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Dessert

Molasses Ginger Cake

A moist cake made with molasses, ginger, and wheat and corn flours, baked in a loaf pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 465 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Molasses Ginger Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter substitute and add the molasses mixed with baking soda.

  2. Beat in the egg and beat well.

  3. Sift together the flours, salt, baking powder, and ginger, then add to the molasses mixture.

  4. Add milk as needed to achieve a smooth batter.

Bake

  1. Bake in a loaf pan for about 40 minutes, or in sheets for about 25 minutes.

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. Wheat + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together412 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, dark color and a deep flavor to the cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that lifts the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to help the cake rise.
Wheat flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Corn flour
Softens the crumb and gives a more tender texture than wheat flour alone.
Butter substitute
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Add milk as needed to achieve a smooth batter. Too much liquid thins the batter and can make the cake spread and turn out gummy, while too little leaves it stiff and dense. Adding milk gradually and stopping when the batter is smooth gives an even rise and crumb.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, milk, wheat, flour, corn):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, milk, wheat, flour, corn. 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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