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Dessert

Soft Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread cake made with flour, molasses, butter, buttermilk, cream, eggs, ginger, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Soft 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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, molasses, butter, cream, eggs, and ground ginger.

  2. In a separate bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk.

  3. Add the buttermilk mixture to the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until set.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Buttermilk + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the gingerbread together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and the dark color and rich flavor of gingerbread.
Eggs
Help bind the batter and set the crumb as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to release gas, helping the cake rise and turn soft.
Buttermilk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the buttermilk before mixing. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it in the acidic buttermilk and then combining it promptly lets the leavening work in the batter, so the gingerbread rises and stays soft rather than dense.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, molasses, butter, buttermilk, cream, egg. 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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