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 ↓
Sunshine 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Gradually stir in the egg yolks, one-third at a time.
Add the milk and baking soda, then mix in the lemon juice and rind.
Fold in the all-purpose flour and rice flour, working quickly to form a light, smooth batter.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into a Turk's-head mold and bake until golden.
Once cooled, ice with lemon icing.
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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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Lemon + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, traps air that helps it rise and turn tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor when creamed with the sugar.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness, moisture, and structure that helps bind the batter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and softens the batter for an even, tender crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and lemon to produce gas that lifts the cake.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
The step that matters
Folding in the flours. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense. Folding gently and working quickly keeps the batter light and preserves the air trapped by creaming.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, rice, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, rice, cream. 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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