Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Layer 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 and mix
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine milk, egg yolks, sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Mix until smooth and then fold in the egg whites.
Bake and ice
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until golden.
For the icing, melt the chocolate and mix with 1 cup of sugar and the beaten egg whites until fluffy.
Spread the icing over the cooled layers.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Egg yolks enrich the batter and whites, folded in, lighten it and give the cake structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilizing the whites and helping the baking soda react.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while tenderizing the crumb.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and helps form the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whole and gently folded. Stirring or deflating them hard loses the air that lifts the layers, leaving a dense cake.
“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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