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Dessert

Centennial Cake

A light cake made with powdered sugar, butter, baking soda, egg whites, sweet milk, cream of tartar, flour, vanilla, topped with citron slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Centennial Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar.

  2. Add the egg whites and mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add to the mixture.

  4. Sift the cream of tartar through the flour and fold it into the batter gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into round quart tins with straight sides.

  2. Top each cake with a slice of citron.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Egg whites
Provide the main structure and lift, setting into a light, tender crumb as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, stabilising the egg foam and reacting with baking soda to aid rising.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Flour
Gives the batter body and helps set the crumb as it bakes.

The step that matters

Folding in the cream of tartar and flour. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the egg whites. Overmixing knocks that air out, so the cake bakes up denser and rises less.

“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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