Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Delicate 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).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of milk.
Mix the corn starch with the cream of tartar.
Add the dissolved baking soda and corn starch mixture to the creamed butter and sugar.
Incorporate the egg whites, beaten until stiff, into the mixture.
Add lemon juice for flavor.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake immediately.
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 + 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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
- White sugar
- Creamed with butter, it helps create a light texture and adds sweetness.
- Corn starch
- Softens the crumb and adds structure by reducing the gluten-like toughness of the flour-free batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that stabilizes the whipped egg whites and supports rising.
The step that matters
Incorporate the beaten egg whites. Stiff egg whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding them in gently keeps that air from collapsing, and the batter should be baked right away so the rising gas and trapped air are not lost.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, butter, egg, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Strawberryfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, butter, egg, 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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