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Dessert

Economical Spice Cake

A moist cake made with raisins, spices, and brown sugar, baked at 350°F.

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 ↓

Economical Spice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the raisin mixture

  1. In a pot, combine brown sugar, water, raisins, shortening, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Bring to a boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and add to the mixture.

Make the batter

  1. In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder.

  2. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 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. 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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Add moisture, chewy texture and natural sweetness to the cake.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic mixture to help the cake rise and brown.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to give the cake additional lift.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a caramel-like flavor to the cake.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries the spice flavors.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Adding flour gradually and mixing only until combined keeps the batter smooth and limits gluten development, which keeps the cake tender rather than tough.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, raisin, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour. 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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