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Dessert

Soft Ginger Cake No. 2

A moist ginger cake made with sour cream, molasses, brown sugar, butter, lard, mace, flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soft Ginger Cake No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour cream.

  2. Stir all ingredients together until well combined.

  3. If the batter is too slack, add a little flour.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into 2 long or square pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to release gas, lifting the cake.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color and moisture, and gives the cake its ginger-cake flavor.
Flour
Provides structure, setting the batter as it bakes.
Butter and lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a softer crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sour cream. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the sour cream spreads the reaction evenly through the batter, so the cake rises without patchy spots or a bitter, soapy taste.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

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