Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Feather Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat one-half cup of butter until creamy.
Add two cups of sugar and beat well together.
Add one cup of milk with one teaspoonful of dissolved soda and beat well together.
Add one cup of sifted flour with two teaspoonfuls of cream tartar, previously rubbed into it.
Add the well-beaten yolk of three eggs.
Beat the whites separately until stiff, add them, and then two more cups of flour, beating well between each successive addition.
Bake
Butter two medium-sized tins, put the batter in, and bake for twenty minutes or half an hour in a moderate oven.
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 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
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.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb by coating the flour and creaming with sugar.
- Milk
- Provides the moisture that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar and soda.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its structure.
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and emulsify the batter, while beaten whites trap air to lighten it.
- Soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release carbon dioxide gas, which makes the cake rise.
- Cream tartar
- Supplies the acid that reacts with the soda, producing gas for lift and a fine texture.
The step that matters
Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. The whites' trapped air bubbles provide much of the lift. Overbeating them makes them dry and grainy, and stirring too hard deflates them, leaving a dense cake.
“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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