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Dessert

White Cup Cakes

A light, sweet cupcake made with butter, sugar, milk, flour, baking powder, egg whites, vanilla, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

White Cup Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter until white.

  2. Add the sugar and cream again.

  3. Mix in the sweet milk.

  4. Sift the flour with baking powder and fold into the mixture.

  5. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites and the remaining flour.

  6. Add the vanilla and almond extracts.

Bake

  1. Fill greased cups two-thirds full.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about twenty minutes.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cupcakes a tender, rich crumb.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cupcakes together as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cupcakes to rise in the oven.
Egg whites
Beaten stiff, they trap air that lightens the batter and helps it rise.
Fine granulated sugar
Creamed with butter to aerate the batter and add sweetness and tenderness.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites and the remaining flour. Folding preserves the air bubbles in the stiff egg whites. Stirring vigorously would deflate the batter, reducing rise and producing a denser, less light cupcake.

“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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