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Dessert

Molasses Cake

A moist cake made with sorghum molasses, butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, sour milk, citron, raisins, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Molasses Cake

Why it works: Sorghum and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 33 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Molasses Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the sorghum molasses, butter, and sugar.

  2. Add the well-beaten eggs and re-cream the mixture.

  3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.

  4. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour milk to the creamed mixture.

  5. Beat the dough well, then fold in the chopped nuts, chopped citron, and raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.

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. Sorghum + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together33 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sorghum + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together99 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sorghum molasses
Provides dark color, moisture, and a rich, sweet, slightly bitter flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich mouthfeel in the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as the cake sets.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with baking soda to aid rising and tenderness.

The step that matters

Adding the dry ingredients alternately with the sour milk. Alternating keeps the batter emulsified and avoids overmixing. Beating after the flour is added develops gluten, so the dough can turn tough if overworked.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

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