Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Fountain 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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, butter, milk, egg yolks, flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and your choice of flavoring.
Quickly stir in the well-beaten whites of 4 eggs.
Pour the batter into loaf pans and bake until done.
Finish
Once baked, cover the cake with frosting made from the reserved egg whites.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Eggs
- Yolks enrich the batter, and beaten whites add lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the beaten egg whites and helps them hold their volume.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Quickly stir in the beaten egg whites. Beaten egg whites trap air that gives the cake lift. Overmixing or letting the batter sit deflates the foam, so the whites should be folded in gently and the batter baked promptly.
“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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