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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

A spiced cake with layers of dark and white batter, containing citron, raisins, currants, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 ↓

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. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy.

  3. Add the eggs and mix well.

  4. Stir in the sweet milk.

  5. Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.

Make the dark batter and assemble

  1. Take 1 cup of this mixture and add molasses, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, citron, raisins, currants, and nuts.

  2. In two shallow pans, layer the dark cake mixture and the white cake mixture, or bake them separately.

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

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Molasses
Darkens the portion it is added to and adds depth of flavor and moisture.
Raisins
Add chewy sweetness and moisture to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Adding the dark mixture to the batter. Mixing the fruit, spices and molasses into only one cup of batter is what makes the two layers contrast. Stir the dark portion until evenly combined so the color and flavor distribute without overworking the batter, which can toughen the cake.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, 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 butter, sugar, egg, milk, 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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