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Dessert

Ginger-cake Pudding

A moist ginger-flavored cake pudding made with molasses, butter, eggs, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger-cake Pudding

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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, molasses, sugar, and butter until well combined.

  3. Add the ginger, cinnamon, allspice, sour cream, baking soda, and flour. Mix until smooth.

  4. Fold in any desired fruit.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  3. Serve warm with sauce.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and dark color.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and acidity that keeps the crumb tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to help the cake rise.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the batter bakes.

The step that matters

Checking for doneness. Baking soda needs the acidity in sour cream and molasses to leaven, and the batter must set fully in the center. Pulling it too early can leave a sunken, gummy middle, while overbaking dries the crumb. Test the center with a toothpick rather than relying on the time alone.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, molasses, sugar, butter, cinnamon, allspice, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Cardamomfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, sugar, butter, cinnamon, allspice, cream. 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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