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Dessert

Blackberry Jam Cake

A sweet cake made with blackberry jam, sugar, butter, flour, eggs, sour cream, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Blackberry Jam Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the eggs and sour cream, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  6. Stir in the blackberry jam last.

Bake and finish

  1. Divide the batter into two greased cake pans.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Let cool and frost with chocolate frosting.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to help the cake rise.
Blackberry jam
Adds fruit sweetness, moisture, and flavor throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and mixing gently keeps the batter smooth and limits gluten development, which helps prevent a tough, dense cake.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Allspicethe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Turmericfits less well

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