Name: Singer Spice Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ½ cup butter; ½ cup milk; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon cloves; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon baking powder; ¼ teaspoon salt

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Singer Spice Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make and bake the batter

In a mixing bowl, combine molasses, butter, and milk.
Add eggs, cloves, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; mix well.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool and serve

Let cool before serving.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,928 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,483 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: Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the cake.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Milk: Adds moisture and helps the batter combine smoothly.
Eggs: Provide structure and help the cake set as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises.

Swap the clove

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

Nutmegfits better
Clovethe original
Allspicefits about as well
Cardamomfits about as well

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