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Dessert

Date Cake

A moist cake made with dates, molasses, sugar, butter, milk, eggs, cloves, nutmeg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Date Cake

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Date 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 large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the molasses, milk, and eggs, mixing well after each addition.

  4. Stir in the chopped dates, ground cloves, and grated nutmeg.

  5. Gradually add flour until the batter reaches a thick consistency.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick 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.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Dates + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together150 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Dates + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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 as the cake sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and helps the creamed mixture hold air for lift.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Dates
Add moisture and sweetness, giving the cake its dense, chewy body.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and a dark color as the cake browns.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually. Flour develops gluten as it is mixed, so adding it in portions and stopping at a thick consistency keeps the cake tender rather than tough and dense.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, milk, egg, clove, nutmeg. 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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