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Dessert

Spice Cake

A moist cake made with molasses, sugar, butter, sour milk, eggs, baking soda, spices, raisins, and citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Spice Cake

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Spice Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  2. Stir half of the baking soda into the molasses until foamy, then add to the butter and sugar mixture.

  3. Foam the remaining baking soda in the sour milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Gradually stir in part of the flour, then add the eggs, followed by more flour.

  5. Finally, mix in the raisins, citron, spices, salt, and the remaining flour.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about one hour, or until a toothpick 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, dark color and a deep flavor to the cake.
Butter
Provides fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Eggs
Add structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour milk to release gas that lifts the cake.
Sour milk
Adds acidity to activate the baking soda and contributes moisture.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.

The step that matters

Foaming the baking soda into the molasses and sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it promptly in the acidic molasses and sour milk and folding it in before baking gives the gas time to lift the batter, so the cake rises well.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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