Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Marshmallow 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 cake
Cream the butter and sugar until very light.
Add the beaten egg whites and sifted flour, mixing well.
Bake in layers at 350°F (175°C).
Make the filling and assemble
For the filling, pour boiling hot sugar over the beaten egg whites, stirring constantly until it ropes. Mix in the chopped marshmallows.
Spread the filling between the layers of cake and sprinkle with nuts.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + nutstop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,180 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to foam, they add lift and structure to the cake and set the filling.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure once heated, holding the layers together.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, cooked into syrup, gives the filling its glossy, sticky body.
- Marshmallows
- Melt into the hot sugar and egg white filling, adding sweetness, softness and chew.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling sugar over the egg whites. The sugar must be hot enough to form a syrup that cooks the beaten egg whites slightly and gives a stable, glossy filling. Pour slowly while stirring constantly so the whites do not scramble or deflate.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, flour):
- Almondfits better
- Macadamia nutfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, flour. 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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