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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

A spiced, raisin and molasses cake baked in two layers and layered with jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Ribbon 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the eggs and mix well.

  4. Stir in the sweet milk, flour, salt, and saleratus (or baking powder).

  5. Divide the batter in half.

  6. To one half, add molasses, raisins, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and flour.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the light batter into two oblong pans.

  2. Pour the dark batter into two pans of the same size.

  3. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

  4. While warm, layer the cakes alternately with jelly or raspberry jam.

Serve

  1. Slice thinly for serving.

  2. It cuts best the day after baking.

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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping the batter set and bind.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
White sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps give a tender, lightly browned crumb.
Saleratus
Reacts to lift the batter so the cake rises as it bakes.
Molasses
Darkens the batter and adds moisture and a deep, sweet flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Underbaked layers may sink or stay gummy, while overbaking dries the crumb. A clean toothpick shows the structure has set but the cake has not dried out.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour, molasses, raisin. 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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