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Dessert

Golden Spice Cake

A moist cake made with brown sugar, molasses, spices, and optional raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Golden Spice Cake

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 ↓

Golden Spice Cake

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. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks, whole egg, brown sugar, and butter until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the molasses, sour milk, and baking soda; mix well.

  3. Gradually add the flour, ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, grated nutmeg, and cayenne pepper; stir until combined.

  4. If using, flour the raisins and fold them into the batter last.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and 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.

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

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

  2. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter and give it a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown while baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep caramel-like sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda with the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the sour milk, to release gas that lifts the batter. Mixing it in properly and then baking promptly keeps the rise even and the crumb light.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

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

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