Name: Molasses Cup Cake
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup sweet milk; 3 eggs; 3 cups flour; 1 large tablespoon ginger; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Molasses Cup 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.

Prepare the batter

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until well combined.
Add the molasses, sweet milk, and ginger, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then add them to the mixture.
Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda, then gradually add to the wet ingredients.
Mix until just combined and pour into a greased cake pan.

Bake

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the cake.
Eggs: Add structure and help the cake set as it bakes.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses acidity to help the cake rise.

The step that matters

Mix until just combined. Overmixing the flour develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense rather than light.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original
Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, sugar, milk, egg, 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.