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Dessert

Old Time Spice Cake

A moist cake flavored with cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and brown sugar, baked with eggs and buttermilk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Old Time Spice 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the soft butter and brown sugar.

  3. Add the whole eggs and egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, and mix until smooth and well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30–35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the icing

  1. Use the remaining egg whites to make soft white boiled icing, flavored with spice extract.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure, moisture, and richness to the crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Soft butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a soft, deep flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to lift the cake as it bakes.
Buttermilk
Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.

The step that matters

Alternating the dry ingredients with the buttermilk. Adding the flour mixture in portions alternating with the buttermilk keeps the batter smooth and evenly emulsified. Overmixing after the flour goes in develops gluten, which can make the cake tough.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cinnamon, sugar, butter, allspice, buttermilk, 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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