Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Bride's Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Separate the whites of twelve eggs and whisk them with three cups of sugar, a small cup of butter, one cup of sweet milk, four cups of flour, half cup of corn starch, and two teaspoons of Royal Baking Powder; flavor with lemon or rose.
Put a heaping tablespoon of cornstarch in the bottom of a horseshoe tumbler, then add flour, one and one-half scant glasses of sugar, and one full teaspoon of cream of tartar; sift the mixture five times.
Add the sifted mixture to the beaten egg whites and one teaspoon vanilla, and mix well.
Bake
Bake for forty minutes to one hour, keeping the oven door closed for the first twenty minutes.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Vanilla | 1 tsp extract (4ml) | 12 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
-
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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
- Whites are beaten to trap air, giving the cake its light, risen structure.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and moist.
- Royal baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
- Cornstarch (in the method)
- Softens the flour's structure, producing a finer, more tender crumb.
The step that matters
Keeping the oven door closed for the first twenty minutes. Opening the door early lets cold air in and drops the temperature, so a foam-based batter, which depends on trapped air and rising gas, can collapse or sink.
“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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