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Dessert

Ginger Drop Cakes

A sweet cake made with molasses, sugar, butter or lard, sour milk, baking soda, spices, flour, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Ginger Drop Cakes

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 ↓

Ginger Drop Cakes

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. In a large bowl, mix together molasses, sugar, butter or lard, and sour milk.

  2. Add baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and flour, mixing until combined.

  3. Stir in ginger to taste.

Bake

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

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the batter onto a baking sheet.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until golden, being careful not to burn.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark sweetness, moisture and the characteristic ginger-cake flavour.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the cakes rise and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas, leavening the cakes.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as the cakes bake.
Butter or lard
Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Bake until golden, not burnt. Sugar and molasses brown quickly, so the cakes can scorch on the outside before the centre is fully set. Watching the colour and removing them once golden keeps the flavour clean.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, milk, cinnamon, clove, 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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