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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

A layered cake made with butter, eggs, sugar, milk, flour, spices, molasses, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ribbon 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the milk.

  5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

Bake the layers

  1. Divide the batter into three parts: pour 1 cup into one jelly pan and another cup into a second pan.

  2. Bake the two layers until golden.

  3. To the remaining batter, add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, molasses, and raisins.

  4. Bake this mixture in a third pan.

Assemble and cool

  1. Once all layers are baked, stack them with jelly in between to hold them together.

  2. Wrap the cake in a napkin until cool.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving a tender crumb and flavour.
Eggs
Provide structure and help bind the batter as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the creamed butter hold air for lightness.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep sweet flavour to the spiced layer.

The step that matters

Baking the layers until golden. Layers that are underbaked can collapse or stay gummy, while overbaking dries them out. Baking the spiced layer and plain layers to the same golden colour helps them set evenly so they stack cleanly.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, milk, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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