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Dessert

Silver Cake

A light, almond-flavored cake made with butter, sugar, flour, powdered sugar, egg whites, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Silver 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Gradually rub in the sifted flour, then add the powdered sugar and essence of bitter almond.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the mixture.

  4. In a separate bowl, mix the milk with the cream of tartar and baking soda.

  5. Combine the milk mixture with the batter and mix until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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
Whipped into a stiff foam that lightens the batter and helps it rise.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Creams with butter to aerate the batter and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
Sifted flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so the baking soda reacts and helps stabilize the egg white foam.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites trap air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so fold gently and only until no white streaks remain.

“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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