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Dessert

Lafayette Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with butter, brown sugar, molasses, spices, orange zest, and eggs.

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

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 ↓

Lafayette Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cut up the butter and brown sugar in a deep pan.

  2. Stir to cream with a spatula.

  3. Add the molasses and warm milk, then mix in the ginger, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, and brandy.

  4. Sift in the flour.

  5. Beat the eggs until very light.

  6. Mix the eggs alternately with the flour into the butter mixture.

  7. Add the grated orange rind and juice, stirring well.

Add the leavening and bake

  1. In a cup, dissolve the Magic Soda in lukewarm water.

  2. In another cup, dissolve the tartaric acid in lukewarm water.

  3. Stir the Magic Soda into the mixture.

  4. Add the tartaric acid.

  5. Butter a large round or oblong pan and pour in the mixture.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until thoroughly done, watching to prevent burning.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs add air and structure, helping the cake set and rise.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar, it adds richness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep caramel flavour.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and the classic gingerbread flavour.
Magic soda
Reacts with the tartaric acid to release gas, lifting the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding the Magic Soda and tartaric acid. Soda and acid react to release carbon dioxide, so they should be stirred in promptly and the batter baked soon after, before the gas escapes and the cake rises poorly.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, milk, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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