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Dessert

Love Cakes

A molasses and brown sugar cake with citron, almonds, chocolate, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Love Cakes

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. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, egg yolks, molasses, and sweet milk.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then add to the wet mixture.

  4. Fold in the chopped citron, almonds, grated chocolate, and spices.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the batter.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a well-greased flat dripping pan.

  2. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Once cooled, ice the top and cut into small squares.

  4. Store in a tin box.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 lighten the dense batter and give it rise and an airy crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, tenderising the crumb and helping it bind.
All-purpose flour
Forms the gluten and starch structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and color, and promotes browning.
Brown sugar
Sweetens and adds moisture and a soft texture, with browning from its molasses content.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, raising the batter so the cake rises.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that lightens the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates it and leaves a dense, flat cake.

“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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