Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Cocoanut Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream together three-quarters of a cup of butter and two cups of white sugar.
Add one cup of sweet milk.
Add yolks first to the butter and sugar, then the whites.
Add four eggs, beating whites and yolks separately.
Flavor with lemon or vanilla.
Mix three heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder into three cups of sifted flour.
Add the flour mixture last.
Bake and frost
Bake in jelly pans.
Beat the whites of three eggs and a cup of powdered sugar to a stiff froth.
When the cake is cooled, spread a thick layer of this frosting over each cake, and sprinkle very thickly with grated coconut.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 5 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 |
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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Milk + buttertop 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).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Whipped separately, they add lift and structure to the batter and richness to the crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add tenderness and richness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming aerates the batter.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and stays light.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour to form the batter.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth. Whites that are under- or over-beaten won't trap air properly, so the cake may come out dense or collapse. Keep yolks and whites separate so no yolk fat deflates the foam.
“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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