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Dessert

Leopard Cake

A layered cake with dark and light portions made from brown sugar, molasses, coffee, butter, sweet milk, spices, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Leopard 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

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

Make the batters

  1. In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, molasses, strong coffee, ¾ cup butter, sweet milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brandy for the dark part.

  2. In another bowl, cream together ⅔ cup butter and white sugar for the light part.

  3. Add sweet milk, lemon essence, baking soda, cream of tartar, and the egg whites to the light part mixture.

Bake

  1. Layer the dark and light mixtures in a greased cake pan.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped or folded into the light batter, they add lift and a light, airy crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness to the dark layer.
Butter
Provides fat for tenderness and richness in both the dark and light layers.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture, caramel flavour and helps browning in the dark layer.
Baking soda
Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce carbon dioxide, helping the cake rise and brown.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, stabilising the egg whites and helping the cake rise evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, coffee, butter, milk, cream, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, coffee, butter, milk, cream, cinnamon. 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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