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Dessert

German Spice Cake

A moist cake made with eggs, sugar, sour cream, spices, flour, nuts, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

German Spice 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

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs until very light.

  3. Add the sugar and sour cream, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  6. Fold in the chopped nuts and raisins.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into two greased cake pans.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Cool and layer with boiled icing.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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
Beaten to a light foam, they add structure and lift to the batter.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity, keeping the crumb tender.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream to help the cake rise.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the cake brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Folding in the dry ingredients and add-ins. Adding the flour gradually and folding gently keeps the batter light. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream, clove, allspice, nutmeg, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, clove, allspice, nutmeg, flour. 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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