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Dessert

Marble Cake

A layered cake made with two batters, one vanilla and one chocolate, swirled together.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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. 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 batters

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In another bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of granulated sugar until light and fluffy.

  4. Add 1 cup of milk, ½ teaspoon of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar to the butter mixture.

  5. Gradually mix in 3 cups of flour until well combined.

  6. In a separate bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 2 cups of brown sugar.

  7. Add the yolks of 8 eggs and 1 cup of sour cream to the brown sugar mixture.

  8. Stir in 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 4 cups of flour, grated nutmeg, and cinnamon until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Layer the two batters in a greased cake pan and swirl with a knife.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes 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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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 cake a light, airy crumb.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Unsalted butter
Adds richness and tenderness to both the light and dark batters.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic ingredients to help the cake rise.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture and binding to the dark batter.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the crumb tender.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. The whipped whites are the cake's main lift. Deflating them by overmixing leaves a dense, flat crumb, so they should be folded in gently, not stirred hard.

“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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