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Dessert

Spice Cake

A sweet cake made with brown sugar, flour, sour milk, eggs, butter, spices, baking soda, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Spice Cake

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 ↓

Spice 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter until smooth.

  3. Add the brown sugar and eggs, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, sour milk, and spices.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar and add it to the mixture.

  6. Combine all ingredients and mix until well blended.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-35 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 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 + 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 and richness as they set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic vinegar and sour milk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a molasses flavour that deepens the spice notes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the vinegar and add it to the mixture. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce carbon dioxide. Adding it promptly, and mixing until blended, lets the bubbles form in the batter so the cake rises evenly rather than stays dense or develops uneven pockets.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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