Why it works: Cream and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Short Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix cream of tartar, soda and salt with the flour.
Rub the butter into this mixture till the whole is like meal.
When well mixed, add the milk.
Stir till light and even.
Shape the cakes
Work quickly now; the quicker you work, the better.
Have your board well sprinkled with flour and instantly bring the dough together.
Divide the dough into as many parts as will be needed to fit your sheet pans when rolled half an inch thick.
When evenly fitted to the pans, incise each cake with squares.
Bake and serve
Bake a nice brown.
Break the cake in the incisions and serve hot.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Milk | 1 cup (244ml) whole | 149 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
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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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour (in the method)
- Forms the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
- Butter (in the method)
- Rubbed into the flour to tenderise the crumb and add richness.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour so the dough comes together and bakes moist.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic component that reacts with soda to produce gas for rising.
- Soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to leaven the cake and help it rise.
The step that matters
Work quickly after adding the milk. Once liquid meets the leavening acid and alkali, gas starts forming right away. Working quickly keeps that gas in the dough, so the cakes rise light instead of flat and dense.
“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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