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Dessert

Philadelphia Cake

A two-layer cake with a white batter and a dark batter, each baked separately and iced differently.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Philadelphia 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 the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the white sugar and ¾ cup butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sweet milk, baking powder, and egg whites, mixing well.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour until combined.

  5. In another bowl, mix the brown sugar, molasses, egg yolks, ¾ cup butter, sweet milk, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and flour.

  6. Fold in the raisins, currants, and chopped citron and figs.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the white batter into one cake pan and the dark batter into another.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

  3. Let cool and ice one cake with chocolate icing and the other with white icing.

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 + clovetop 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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Egg whites add lift and structure, while yolks add richness and tenderness.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it reacts in the batter, making the cakes rise.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and the dark colour of the second batter.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps keep the crumb soft.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the flour until combined. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which makes the cake tough and dense. Stir only until no dry flour remains.

Swap the clove

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

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

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