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Dessert

Spice Cake

A spiced cake made with molasses, spices, and a sugar syrup dressing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Spice Cake

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Make the batter

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

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

  3. Add the egg yolks, molasses, and sour cream, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, cloves, and baking soda.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, beating well until combined.

  6. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until just mixed.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour the batter into greased layer cake pans.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  3. For the dressing, boil 2 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water without stirring until it forms a thick syrup.

  4. Gradually pour the syrup onto the beaten egg whites, beating continuously until cool.

  5. If the dressing is too stiff, add a little cold water.

  6. Spread the dressing on the layers of the cooled cake.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and structure, helping the batter bind and set.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, sweet flavor.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity that works with the baking soda to lift the crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to make the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten egg whites hold trapped air that gives the cake lift. Overmixing or stirring vigorously deflates them, leaving a dense, flat layer.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

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

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