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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake made with separate white and brown batter, baked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Marble 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.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the whites of 7 eggs until stiff.

  3. In another bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of white sugar. Add 1 cup of sweet milk and mix well.

  4. Sift together 4 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar, and 1 teaspoon of baking soda. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the butter mixture.

  5. In a separate bowl, mix the yolks of 7 eggs, 2 cups of brown sugar, 1 cup of molasses, 1 cup of sour milk, and 1 cup of butter. Sift together 5 cups of flour, 2 tablespoons of ground cloves, and 1½ teaspoons of baking soda. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the yolk mixture.

Bake

  1. Layer the white and brown batters in a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for about 1 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.

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

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs
Whites beaten stiff add lift and an airy crumb; yolks add richness and tenderness.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds fat that gives a tender, rich texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic milk and molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color to the brown batter.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crumb stay soft.

The step that matters

Layering the white and brown batters. Both batters rise and set at the same oven heat, so pouring them in carelessly can blend them into a muddy color instead of distinct marbled swirls. Gentle layering keeps the contrast clear.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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