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Dessert

Soft Ginger Cakes

Soft ginger cakes made with molasses, lard, water, baking soda, ginger, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Soft Ginger Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, combine molasses, lard, and water.

  2. Stir in baking soda and ginger.

  3. Gradually add flour until the mixture is soft enough to roll out.

Roll and bake

  1. Roll out the dough as thin as possible.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until lightly browned, 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.

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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark colour and moisture, and reacts with baking soda to lift the dough.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the cakes tender and short in texture.
Baking soda
Releases gas in the acidic molasses so the cakes rise and open up.
Ginger
Gives the cakes their spiced aroma and warm flavour.
Flour
Builds the structure that lets the dough be rolled out and hold its shape.

The step that matters

Roll thin and watch the bake. Rolling the dough as thin as possible and baking until only lightly browned matters because thin dough heats quickly and sugars in molasses darken and scorch fast, so it can burn before it is cooked through.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, 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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