Spice Cup Cakes

A spice cake sweetened entirely with molasses and dark corn syrup, with no sugar and no butter — a formula that reads like a wartime or sugar-rationing substitution. It works, but the batter behaves differently from a creamed cake batter.

• The hinge: mix and bake without delaySoda is the only leavener, and it starts reacting the moment it meets the molasses and syrup. Have the tins greased and the oven at temperature before you combine wet and dry, and get the pans in promptly.
• Oven temperature380°F is specific enough to follow as written; 375°F is the nearest mark on most dials and is fine. Start checking at 20 minutes — molasses batters brown deceptively early, so test with a skewer in the centre rather than judging by colour.
• Adding the boiling waterPour the boiling water into the oil, molasses and syrup as directed, then let that mixture cool to warm before the beaten eggs go in, or you will get threads of cooked egg. The original assumes you add the liquid to the dry ingredients first, which cools it; keep that order.
• No salt is listedAdd 1/2 teaspoon to the dry ingredients. Without it the spices read flat and the molasses tastes raw.
• Cornmeal grindUse fine or medium yellow cornmeal, not coarse polenta grind, or the crumb turns gritty. The 3/4 cup of cornstarch presumably softens the crumb against the meal rather than acting as a thickener; reducing it will change the texture.
• MolassesUse unsulphured cooking molasses. Blackstrap is far more bitter and mineral than what this recipe intends and will overwhelm the spice.
• Muffin cups"Half fill" is correct for this batter, which rises more than it looks like it will. Grease the tins well; paper liners work but molasses cakes stick to them, so let them cool fully before peeling.
• Yield and keepingThe recipe claims thirty cakes, which suggests standard small muffin cups half filled; larger tins will give fewer. Molasses bakes are often said to improve by the second day, once the spice has settled; store airtight.