Name: Blackberry Jam Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; ½ cup butter; 2 cups French's White Lily flour; 3 eggs; 3 tablespoons sweet milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon cloves; 1 cup blackberry jam

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 ↓

Blackberry Jam 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.

Prepare the batter

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the sweet milk, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and blackberry jam.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.

Bake and cool

Divide the batter between two round cake pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let cool before frosting and assembling the layers.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Clove + blackberrytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together212 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cinnamon + blackberrytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together362 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 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's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter and lift the crumb.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, lightly aerated texture when creamed.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic blackberry jam to help the cake rise and brown.
Blackberry jam: Adds moisture, fruity sweetness, and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.

The step that matters

Mixing in the flour. Mixing only until combined keeps gluten development low, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and dense.

Swap the clove

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well

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