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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake made by alternating white and dark batter, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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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 ↓

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 white batter

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

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the white sugar.

  3. Mix in the batter, sour milk, sifted flour, and baking soda. Add flavoring to taste.

Make the dark batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks and add the brown sugar.

  2. Mix in the batter, buttermilk, sifted flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and baking soda.

Bake

  1. In a greased cake pan, alternate spoonfuls of the white and dark batter.

  2. Bake for 1 hour and 15 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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + buttermilktop 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they give the white batter its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat to the dark batter, tenderising its crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to make the batter rise.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and its molasses deepens the dark batter's colour.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma to the dark batter that contrasts with the white layer.

The step that matters

Alternating the white and dark batter in the pan. Dropping the batters in spoonfuls without over-stirring keeps distinct swirls. Stirring them together blends the colours and deflates the whipped egg whites, reducing lift.

Swap the clove

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

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

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