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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake with alternating white and dark batters made from butter, sugar, milk, flour, spices, chocolate, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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.

Make the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 1½ cups sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add ½ cup milk, 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 4 egg whites. Mix well.

  4. In another bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 1½ cups brown sugar.

  5. Stir in ½ cup molasses, ½ cup sweet milk, 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons cloves, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 tablespoon grated chocolate, 4 egg yolks, 1 egg white, and 2 teaspoons baking powder. Mix until smooth.

Bake

  1. In a greased loaf pan, alternate layers of the white and dark batter.

  2. Bake for 1 hour 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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavour.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Egg whites
Add structure and lift to the white batter as they set in the oven.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture, and help bind the dark batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and colour to the dark batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.

The step that matters

Alternating the white and dark batter in the pan. Batters of different density and colour must be layered gently so the swirls stay distinct. Pouring or stirring too vigorously blends them into an even brown cake instead of a marbled one.

Swap the clove

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

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

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