Skip to main content
Dessert

Soft Molasses Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread cake made with molasses, butter, flour, eggs, ginger, lemon peel, milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Soft Molasses 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.

  1. In a large bowl, mix molasses, melted butter, flour, beaten eggs, ground ginger, and lemon peel.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in milk and stir into the mixture.

  3. Add flour until the batter reaches the consistency of unbaked pound cake.

  4. Pour into deep pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

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 + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Molasses
Provides dark sweetness, moisture and the characteristic gingerbread flavor and color.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets while baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer crumb.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda to the milk. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the molasses, to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the milk before stirring it in spreads it evenly so the cake rises uniformly instead of in pockets.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes