Skip to main content

Vanilla Layer Cake Recipe

Bea, of the famous Bea's of Bloomsbury, shares her delectable vanilla layer cake recipe with us.

By lovefood · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 19,175 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

The recipe

8 people
Prep25 min
Cook45 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By lovefood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + strawberry jamtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the strawberry jam

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, milk, cream):

  1. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Raspberrybetter flavor fit
  4. Strawberry jamthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, milk, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).