Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Maple Sugar 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the granulated sugar and butter.
Add the egg whites (or whole eggs) and mix well.
Stir in the sweet milk.
In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder and flour.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.
Bake and assemble
Divide the batter into 3 layers and bake until golden.
Once cooled, layer the cake with boiled frosting made using maple sugar.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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).
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
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps trap air when creamed with butter for a tender crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and helps hold air during creaming.
- Egg whites
- Provide structure and lift, setting the cake as it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure once its proteins are hydrated and set by heat.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the layers to rise.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth batter that bakes evenly.
The step that matters
Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Adding flour gradually and mixing only until smooth keeps the batter light. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the layers tough and dense.
“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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