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Dessert

Soft Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake made with butter, brown sugar, molasses, sweet milk, ginger, salt, baking soda, flour, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Soft Ginger Cake

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 ↓

Soft Ginger Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs with the brown sugar and butter until creamy.

  3. Add the ginger, salt, and sweet milk, mixing well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and add it to the mixture along with the flour.

  5. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 45 to 50 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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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
Yolks enrich and emulsify the batter, while beaten whites folded in add lightness and structure.
Butter
Fat that adds tenderness and richness to the crumb after creaming with sugar.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that helps keep the cake soft.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whipped whites hold air that gives lift. Stirring or folding them too vigorously knocks that air out, leaving a denser, flatter cake.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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