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Dessert

Marble Cake

A two-layered cake with a light and a dark batter swirled together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the light batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 ½ cups white sugar and ½ cup butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add ½ cup sweet milk, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, and the whites of 4 eggs. Mix well. Gradually add 2 ½ cups sifted flour and beat until very light.

Make the dark batter

  1. In another bowl, cream together 2 cups brown sugar and ½ cup butter.

  2. Add ½ cup sour milk, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 2 ½ cups flour. Mix in the yolks of 4 eggs and spices: 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves, and 1 teaspoon nutmeg.

Bake

  1. Layer the light and dark mixtures in a greased loaf pan.

  2. Bake for about 50‑60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

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

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites add lift and an airy crumb, while yolks add richness and tenderness.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds fat for a tender, moist texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
White sugar
Creams with butter to aerate the batter and adds sweetness and tenderness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavor to the dark batter.
Cream of tartar
An acid that stabilizes the batter and helps it rise with the baking soda.

The step that matters

Layering the light and dark batters. Pouring the two batters in loosely, without over-mixing them together, keeps distinct swirls. Stirring too much blends them into an even brown color and loses the marbled pattern.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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