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Dessert

Blackberry Jam Cake

A moist cake made with sugar, butter, eggs, sour cream, spices, baking soda, blackberry jam, and flour.

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 ↓

Blackberry Jam 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, cream together the sugar and butter.

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

  4. Stir in the sour cream, spices, and baking soda.

  5. Fold in the blackberry jam and enough flour to achieve a batter consistency.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into square molds measuring about 4 by 6 by 3 inches.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and give the cake structure as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and creaming with sugar traps air for a tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender texture when creamed with butter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and jam to lift the batter and aid browning.
Blackberry jam
Supplies fruit sweetness, moisture, and a deep flavor throughout the cake.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity that tenderizes the crumb and activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Blackberry jam adds moisture and sugar, so the centre can stay wet and sink if the cake is pulled too early. Testing the centre with a toothpick confirms the crumb has set.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cream, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice. 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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