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Dessert

Lady Cake

A light, almond-flavored cake made with butter, sugar, milk, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lady 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Make the batter

  1. Mix the cream of tartar into the flour.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in a little warm water and add it to the flour mixture.

  3. Add the milk and almond extract to the creamed mixture and mix well.

  4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the batter just before baking.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity in the batter to help the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that gives lift. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from deflating, so the cake rises well and stays light.

“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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