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Dessert

Jam Cake

A sweet cake made with eggs, butter, sugar, buttermilk, jam, flour, spices, and a sugar‑cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Jam 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. Beat the eggs and butter until creamy.

  3. Add sugar, buttermilk, and jam; mix well.

  4. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, allspice, and nutmeg in another bowl.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.

Bake and fill

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Cook sugar, cream, butter, and flour in a saucepan until thick for the filling.

  3. Spread the filling between the layers of the 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.

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. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 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 + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure and richness as they set during baking, holding the cake together.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and when creamed with eggs helps trap air for a lighter crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crust while keeping the crumb moist.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity that tenderizes the crumb and reacts with the leavening.
Jam
Adds fruit sweetness, moisture, and flavor throughout the cake.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense. Stir just until the batter is smooth.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

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