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 ↓
Lemon Layer Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cake batter
Cream together 1 cupful of sugar, butter, and a portion the size of an egg.
Beat in 2 eggs, ½ cupful sweet milk, 1½ cupfuls flour, and 2 teaspoonfuls of Royal baking powder.
Stir in the juice and grated rind of 1 lemon, and 1 tablespoonful of flour.
Add lemon, 1 egg.
Make the filling
Mix ½ cupful water and ½ cupful sugar.
Cook in double boiler.
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 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add richness, structure and moisture as they set.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure as its starches set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and helps the batter form a smooth, even mix.
The step that matters
Cook in double boiler. A double boiler heats gently and indirectly, so the mixture thickens evenly without scorching on the bottom of the pan or turning lumpy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, egg, milk. 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.
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