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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made by alternating light and dark batters to create a marbled appearance.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. 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. Beat the whites of 4 eggs until stiff.

Make the light batter

  1. Cream together ½ cup butter and 1 cup white sugar.

  2. Add ½ cup sweet milk to the butter mixture.

  3. Add 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract to the butter mixture.

  4. Gradually mix in 2½ cups sifted flour.

Make the dark batter

  1. Combine the yolks of 4 eggs in a separate bowl.

  2. Add 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup cooking molasses and ½ cup sour milk to the yolks.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon ground mace, 1 teaspoon ground cloves and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon to the yolks mixture.

  4. Dissolve 1 teaspoon baking soda in a little milk, then add it to the yolks mixture.

  5. Mix in 1½ cups sifted flour to the yolks mixture.

Bake

  1. In a well-buttered cake dish, drop spoonfuls of the light batter and dark batter alternately to create a marbled effect.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted 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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms the cake's structure once its starches set in the oven.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and help bind the batter; whites are beaten to add lift.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the light batter rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in sour milk to release gas, helping the dark batter rise.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep sweetness to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Dropping the light and dark batters. Spoon the two batters in alternating dollops rather than stirring them together, so they form distinct swirls. Batters of similar thickness hold their pattern better during baking.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

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