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Dessert

Blackberry Cake

A sweet cake made with eggs, butter, sugar, flour, blackberry jam, spices, raisins, pecans, and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Blackberry 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 butter together until creamy.

  3. Add the sugar and mix well.

  4. In another bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the sour cream or buttermilk.

  5. Combine the flour, blackberry jam, dissolved soda mixture, grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice into the egg mixture.

  6. Mix until well combined.

  7. Pour the batter into greased layer cake pans.

Bake and fill

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

  2. For the icing, cook the raisins and pecans together until thickened, then spread between the layers.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream or buttermilk to help the cake rise.
Blackberry jam
Adds sweetness, fruit flavor and moisture to the batter.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the sour cream or buttermilk. Baking soda needs an acidic partner to release gas for rising. Dissolving it fully in the dairy before mixing spreads it evenly, so the cake rises uniformly rather than in patches.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Blackberrythe original

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