Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Marble 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the two batters
In a bowl, mix the dark part: beat the egg yolks with brown sugar, butter, molasses, sour cream, flour, baking soda, pepper, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves.
In another bowl, prepare the white part: beat the egg whites with white sugar, butter, sweet milk, flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Layer and bake
In a greased cake pan, layer the dark and white mixtures alternately, starting with the dark.
Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,890 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Eggs
- Egg whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help bind the batter.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that form the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep color, and a strong sweet flavor to the dark batter.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so they hold their volume in the white batter.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness with a toothpick. The center of a dense marble cake sets last. A clean toothpick shows it has baked through, while overbaking dries out the crumb.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, molasses, cream, flour, pepper):
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
- Cardamomfits less well
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, molasses, cream, flour, pepper. 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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