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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made by alternating batter of whites and yolks to create a marbled effect.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Marble 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Grease a cake pan.

Make the white batter

  1. Beat the whites of 7 eggs until stiff.

  2. Cream together 3 cups white sugar and 1 cup butter.

  3. Add 1 cup sour milk, 4 cups sifted flour, and 1 teaspoon baking soda to the sugar mixture. Mix well.

  4. Flavor the mixture to taste.

Make the dark batter

  1. Combine the yolks of 7 eggs, 3 cups brown sugar, 1 cup butter, 1 cup sour milk, 4 cups sifted flour, 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon ground allspice, 1 tablespoon ground cloves, and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Mix well.

Marble and bake

  1. Alternate spoonfuls of the white and dark batter to create a marbled effect.

  2. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  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
Whites add lift and structure while yolks add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
All-purpose flour
Flour provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter
Butter adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise.
Baking soda
It reacts with the acidic sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Brown sugar
It adds sweetness, moisture, and a deeper molasses flavor to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Alternating the batters for the marble effect. Spooning the two batters in alternating layers keeps them distinct. Stirring or over-mixing blends them into one uniform color, so the marbling disappears.

Swap the clove

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

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

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