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Dessert

White Cake

A simple white cake made with butter, sugar, milk, egg whites, flour, baking powder, soda, nutmeg, cloves, raisins or currants, baked quickly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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White Cake

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 ↓

White Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream one cup butter and two cups sugar until light.

  2. Beat in the whites of five eggs and the three whole eggs.

  3. Stir in one cup sweet milk.

  4. Sift together three cups flour and two teaspoonfuls Breadmaker's Baking Powder, and fold into the mixture.

  5. Dissolve a quarter teaspoonful soda in boiling water and add to the batter.

  6. Add one teaspoonful nutmeg and half a teaspoonful cloves, mixing well.

Shape and bake

  1. Gradually add flour, working it in gradually until the dough is soft and just stiff enough to roll out.

  2. Shape the dough into round cakes, placing a raisin or currant on top of each.

  3. Bake quickly.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

845Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
121 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the creamed mixture hold air for a lighter texture.
Breadmaker's baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise in the oven.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture that hydrates the flour and keeps the crumb soft.

The step that matters

Working in the flour. Once flour is added, overmixing develops gluten and makes the cakes tough. Add it gradually and stop as soon as the dough is soft and just stiff enough to roll out.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Jalapenofits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg. 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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