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Dessert

Lafayette Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with eggs, butter, molasses, spices, lemon, and optional raisins, currants, pearl‑ash.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Lafayette Gingerbread

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Lafayette Gingerbread

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Beat the eggs well and add them to the mixture.

  3. Pour in the molasses and mix thoroughly.

  4. Add the ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves, stirring well.

  5. Gradually add the flour and stir continuously.

  6. Mix until light and fluffy, then add the lemon juice and peel.

Bake

  1. Butter an earthenware or thick metal pan and pour in the batter.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 1 hour or until done.

  3. For smaller cakes, bake on little tins.

Optional pearl-ash

  1. If using pearl-ash, dissolve it in vinegar and stir in at the end, omitting the lemon.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep colour and flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture and helps the crust brown.
Pearl-ash
Reacts with the vinegar to release gas, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Stirring in the pearl-ash. Pearl-ash reacts with vinegar to release carbon dioxide bubbles that lift the batter. Stirring it in last, just before the pan goes in the oven, keeps those bubbles from escaping before baking sets the crumb.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, molasses, flour, cinnamon, allspice. 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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