Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Home Recipe Book
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift 4 oz 8 oz flour and 1 teaspoonful baking powder.
Beat 3 ozs butter and 4 ozs sifted sugar until creamy.
Add half of the sifted flour to the butter-sugar mixture and beat well.
Add 1 egg (unbeaten) and beat.
Add the remaining flour, which has been mixed with the baking powder, and beat.
Add the second egg (unbeaten) and beat.
Add a few drops of vanilla and a few caraway seeds, and beat well.
Bake
Pour the batter into a buttered tin.
Bake in a good oven for about 35 minutes.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
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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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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 of the cake as the proteins set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and richness in flavour.
- Sugar (in the method)
- Sweetens the cake and helps trap air when creamed with the butter.
- Eggs
- Add structure, moisture and richness to the batter.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Beating softened butter with sugar traps air in the fat, and these air pockets expand in the oven to give a light crumb. Under-beating leaves 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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