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 ↓
Ginger Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a good hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Cream the butter and sugar until light.
Make the batter
Add the eggs two at a time, beating well between each addition.
Stir in the extract of ginger.
Mix in the milk to form a medium batter.
Bake
Pour into a cake pan and bake for 40 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich in flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming in air for lightness.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it bakes evenly.
The step that matters
Add the eggs two at a time, beating well between each addition. Beating each addition fully emulsifies the eggs into the creamed butter and sugar. If the eggs are added too quickly, the batter can curdle and lose its airy texture, so the cake may turn out dense.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, egg, milk. 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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