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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake made by alternating light and dark batters with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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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 ↓

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 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 4 egg whites. Mix well.

  4. Gradually add 2 ½ cups flour and mix until smooth.

Make the dark batter

  1. In another bowl, combine 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup molasses, ½ cup butter, and ½ cup milk. Mix until smooth.

  2. Add ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 2 ½ cups flour, and 4 egg yolks. Mix well.

  3. Stir in ½ tablespoon each of ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a greased cake pan, drop spoonfuls of the light batter followed by spoonfuls of the dark batter, alternating them.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavor.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift to the light batter as they set in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, helping the dark batter bake tender and moist.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark color and moisture to the dark batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.

The step that matters

Alternating the light and dark batter. Dropping spoonfuls in alternating layers, rather than mixing them, creates the marbled pattern. Stirring them together would blend the colors into one even batter.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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