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Dessert

Cinnamon Gingerbread

A sweet cake made with flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and Lyle's Golden Syrup.

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

Cinnamon Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy.

  3. Add the eggs, milk, and Lyle's Golden Syrup, mixing well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and add it to the mixture.

  5. Sift in the flour, cinnamon, mixed spice, and ginger, then mix until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 2 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.

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Butter or margarine
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown during baking.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the syrup's acidity to help the cake rise and darken.
Lyle's golden syrup
Adds moisture, sweetness and a deep colour to the crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved in the liquid so it spreads evenly. Unevenly distributed soda can leave pockets that rise too fast or taste bitter.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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