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Dessert

Blackberry Jam Cake

A moist cake made with blackberry jam, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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.

Make the batter

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

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

  3. Add the blackberry jam and seeded raisins, and mix well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the sweet milk.

  6. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25–30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Let the cake cool and layer with icing between 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.

  1. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  4. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. 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

Butter
Adds fat that gives the cake a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Eggs
Provide structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Blackberry jam
Adds sweetness, moisture, and fruity flavor throughout the cake.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the batter and adds moisture and caramel-like depth.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs one at a time. Beating in each egg until fully incorporated lets the fat and liquid form a stable emulsion. Adding them together or too fast can split the batter, which can leave a coarse, dense crumb.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Blackberrythe original

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