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Dessert

Blackberry Cake

A moist cake made with butter, sugar, buttermilk, blackberry preserves, eggs, baking soda, flour, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Blackberry 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the buttermilk and blackberry preserves, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and add them to the mixture.

  5. Combine the baking soda, flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg in another bowl.

  6. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.

  7. In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 30-40 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.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Blackberry + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Blackberry + allspicetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,721 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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
Yolks enrich the batter, while whipped whites add lift and a light, airy crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake tenderness and richness.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and preserves to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and acidity, tenderizing the crumb and activating the baking soda.
Blackberry preserves
Adds sweetness, fruit flavor and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites are full of trapped air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, so fold gently until no white streaks remain.

Swap the blackberry

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Blackberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, buttermilk, egg, 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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