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Dessert

Blackberry Jam Cake

A moist cake flavored with blackberry jam and spices, topped with a simple sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

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. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg.

  6. Mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture alternately with the sour milk and blackberry jam.

  7. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the frosting, boil the sugar and water for about 6 minutes without stirring.

  3. Gradually stir the hot syrup into the beaten egg whites until smooth.

  4. Spread the frosting thinly between the layers and on top of the cake.

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. Blackberry + clovetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together212 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness, colour and binding to the batter.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the batter and help it rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and jam to make the cake rise.
Blackberry jam
Adds moisture, sweetness, fruit flavour and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that lightens the cake. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates the batter and leaves a dense cake.

Swap the clove

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

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

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