Name: Spiced Oatmeal Cakes
Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups flour; ¼ teaspoon baking soda; ¼ cup cooked oatmeal; ¼ teaspoon baking powder; ¼ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ¼ cup raisins; 3 tablespoons fat; ¼ cup molasses

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 ↓

Spiced Oatmeal Cakes

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

Heat the molasses and fat in a saucepan until boiling.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cooked oatmeal, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, and raisins.
Pour the hot molasses and fat into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Bake

Spoon the batter into muffin pans.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes.

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.

Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,075 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,390 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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: Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they set.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses acid to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking to help the cakes rise and become light.
Molasses: Adds moisture, dark color, and depth of sweetness, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Fat: Adds tenderness and moisture, keeping the crumb soft rather than dry.
Sugar: Sweetens the cakes and helps them brown during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the hot molasses and fat to the dry ingredients. Mixing well without overworking matters, because the hot liquid activates the leavening. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the cakes dense and tough rather than tender.

“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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Molasses Cake90 recipes

Cinnamon Rolls71 recipes

Cinnamon Cake42 recipes

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Spiced Oatmeal Cakes