Name: Snow-flake Cake
Ingredients: one-half teaspoonful of cream of tar- tar; two cupfuls of molasses; one cupful of sugar; one cupful of butter; one cupful of sweet milk; two tablespoonfuls of ginger; four cupfuls of flour; three teaspoonfuls of baking powder; one cupful of molasses; one-half cupful of lard; one tablespoonful of ginger; one-half cupful of boiling w^ater; one teaspoonful of soda; three tablespoon fuls of melted butter; one teaspoonful of salt; one-third cupful of sour milk; one tablespoonful of butter; one cupful of sour cream; two cupfuls of sifted flour; one cupful of chopped raisins; one tablespoonful of cloves; half cupful of sweet milk; one-half cupful of molasses; one-half cupful of butter; one-half teaspoonfuls of baking powder; one-half cupfuls of flour; one cupful of seeded; one-half teaspoonful of vanilla; four teaspoonfuls of baking the good cheer cook book; one cupful of boiling water the last thing before putting into the oven

Why it works: Butter and milk match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 81,222 recipes mention both. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together81,222 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together41,494 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + raisintop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together9,071 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together43,437 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Molasses + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Beaten whites trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
Cream of tartar: Stabilizes the beaten egg whites so they hold their foam while baking.
Flour: Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps keep the whites stable and tender.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten whites. Fold the whites in gently so the foam is not deflated. Their trapped air is what lifts the cake, so overmixing causes a dense, flat result.

Flavor stand-ins for the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, molasses, sugar, butter, milk, flour, raisin):

Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
Nutmegbetter flavor fit
Gingerthe original
Cloveabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, molasses, sugar, butter, milk, flour, raisin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

Snow-flake Cake

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Bake