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 ↓
Feather 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.
Make the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the egg and sugar together until well combined.
Add the cold butter and milk, mixing until smooth.
In another bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until just combined.
If desired, fold in any optional ingredients like fruit sauces, jelly, lemon extract, spices, or raisins.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool before serving.
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 + 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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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
- Egg
- Binds the batter and gives the cake structure as it sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps give it a tender crumb.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and stabilizes leavening, helping the cake rise lightly.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, evenly mixed batter.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding dry ingredients gradually and stirring only until just combined keeps the batter smooth and limits gluten development, which would otherwise make the cake tough. Overmixing also knocks out the gas bubbles that give the cake its lift.
Swap the apple
The recipe marks apple as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream. 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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