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Dessert

Queen's Cake

A butter, milk, vanilla, flour, soda, and egg cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Queen's Cake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 19,187 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Queen's Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Beat well together one cupful of butter and three cupfuls of white sugar.

  2. Add the yolks of six eggs and one cupful of milk, two teaspoonfuls of vanilla or lemon extract. Mix all thoroughly.

  3. To four cupfuls of flour add two heaping teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and sift gently over the cake stirring all the time.

  4. To this add one even teaspoonful of soda dissolved in one tablespoonful of warm water. Mix it well.

  5. Stir in gently the whites of six eggs beaten to a stiff foam.

Bake

  1. Bake slowly. It should be put in the oven as soon as possible after putting in the soda and whites of eggs.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,032 recipes mention both: they likely 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
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while beaten whites lighten it and give it structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed and baked.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so the soda can react and help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lightens the cake.
White sugar
Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help hold air in the batter.

The step that matters

Bake promptly after adding the soda and egg whites. The soda and cream of tartar react as soon as they are mixed, and the whipped whites start losing their air. Delaying the oven lets the batter lose lift, so it should go in right away.

“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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