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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

A layered cake made from eggs, sugar, milk, butter, flour, spices, molasses, and fruit, baked and frosted with jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk and melted butter, mixing well.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.

  5. Divide the batter into three parts.

  6. To one part, add cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, molasses, and fruit.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the plain batter into two greased cake pans and the spiced batter into another.

  2. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Once cooled, layer the cakes with jelly in between and frost the top.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten with sugar to trap air, giving the cake lightness and structure as it sets.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake once heated and set.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavour in the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and colour to the spiced batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and, when beaten with eggs, helps create a light texture.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Beating incorporates air into the eggs and sugar, which gives the batter its lift. Under-beating leaves a dense cake, while the flour and baking powder should be added gently afterward so the trapped air is not lost.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

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