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Dessert

Ginger Cake

A baked cake made with flour, butter, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, eggs, milk, and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Ginger Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat the butter and brown sugar together until creamy.

  3. Mix the syrup and spices, then warm the syrup and spices slightly.

  4. Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl.

Make the batter

  1. Thoroughly mix all ingredients together.

  2. Beat the eggs and add them to the mixture, along with enough milk to achieve the right consistency.

  3. Pour the batter into a cake tin lined with buttered paper.

Bake

  1. Bake for about two hours.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Syrup
Adds sweetness, moisture and a soft, sticky texture.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk should be added gradually to reach the right consistency. Too much thins the batter, which can lead to a flat, dense or overly wet cake, while too little makes it stiff and dry.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, cinnamon, butter, syrup, egg, milk. 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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