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Dessert

Spice-cake

A spiced cake with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and a glossy icing made from egg whites and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Spice-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 and mix the batter

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

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk.

  3. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks, brown sugar, melted butter, and sour milk mixture.

  4. Add the cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and flour; mix until smooth.

Bake and ice

  1. Pour the batter into greased cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the icing, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add 1 cup of sugar until glossy.

  3. Spread the icing between the layers of the cooled cake.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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 add richness and structure; whipped whites give the icing its airy, stable foam.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the cake and gives it a tender crumb.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture and tenderness to the crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deeper caramel flavour to the cake.
Melted butter
Adds fat for moisture, tenderness, and a rich mouthfeel.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites for the icing. Whites must be beaten until stiff and the sugar added gradually so the foam stays stable and glossy. Any trace of yolk or grease can stop them from whipping properly.

Swap the clove

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, flour. 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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