Name: Soft Molasses Cakes
Ingredients: ½ cup brown sugar; ½ cup shortening (lard); ½ cup molasses; ½ cup thick sour cream; 2 large eggs, well beaten; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon ground ginger; 4 cups all-purpose flour

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Soft Molasses Cakes

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 dough

In a bowl, mix brown sugar, shortening, molasses, sour cream, and beaten eggs.
Add baking soda and ground ginger, then mix well.
Gradually incorporate the flour until a dough forms.
Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Shape and bake

Roll out the chilled dough and cut into desired shapes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour: Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets during baking.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add richness and structure.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to help the cake rise and brown.
Molasses: Adds moisture, deep flavor, and sweetness, and promotes browning.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Shortening: Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a soft texture.

The step that matters

Chilling the dough. Chilling firms the fat so the dough is easier to roll and cut cleanly, and it keeps the shapes from spreading in the oven.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Jalapenofits better
Gingerthe original

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