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Dessert

Marble Cake

A cake with marbled colors made from white, chocolate, and pink batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  4. Stir in the milk, flour, and baking powder until combined.

  5. Divide the batter into three parts.

Color and bake

  1. In one part, mix in the dissolved chocolate.

  2. In another part, add the cochineal for coloring.

  3. Take spoonfuls of each color (white, brown, pink) alternately and pour into a long tin pan.

  4. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Make the icing

  1. For icing, beat the egg white, add vanilla, and mix in powdered sugar until desired consistency.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich.
Eggs
Egg yolks add richness and structure, helping the cake set as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the cake rise and become light.
White sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.

The step that matters

Alternating the colored batters. Spooning the white, brown, and pink batters in alternating layers is what creates the marbled pattern. Pouring them in unevenly or stirring them together will blend the colors into a single shade.

“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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