Name: Baltimore Butter Cake
Ingredients: 3 cups all purpose flour; 2 cups granulated sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 1 cup butter room temperature; 2 teaspoons vanilla; 4 eggs; 6 tablespoons butter; ¾ cup granulated sugar; 3 tablespoons water; 2 teaspoons vanilla

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

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.

Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,241 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,050 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
All purpose flour: Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
Butter: Adds richness and tenderness, and the melted butter sauce keeps the cake moist.
Granulated sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and lightens.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot butter sauce over the cake. Pouring slowly lets the sauce soak into the holes made by piercing, moistening the crumb evenly. Boiling the sauce can cause it to separate and make the cake greasy.

Swap the vanilla

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillathe original
Figfits less well
Lemonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Vanilla	1 tsp extract (4ml)	12
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Baltimore Butter Cake