Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,283 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Prince of Wales 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. 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, mix the flour, corn starch, sweet milk, butter, sugar, baking powder, and egg whites until well combined.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 124,287 recipes mention both: they likely 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 main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and help the cake set and rise as they cook.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness, moisture and richness in the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown lightly during baking.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and forms the batter.
The step that matters
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean. Underbaking leaves wet batter in the center that can collapse as it cools, while overbaking dries the crumb. Checking the center with a toothpick confirms the structure has set.
“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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