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 ↓
Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cake batter
Beat 2 cups of pulverized sugar and 1 cup of butter together until well blended.
Add 1 cup of sweet milk and mix.
Stir in 3 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
Fold in the whites of 8 eggs beaten stiff.
Bake the batter in layers.
Make the filling
Combine 4 cups of sugar with a small cup of boiling water and boil in a pan until clear and candied.
Pour the hot sugar syrup onto the beaten whites of 4 eggs that have been beaten to a froth.
Beat the mixture until cold, then flavor with vanilla.
Assemble
Spread the filling between each cake layer and on top.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
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 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure once its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and stay light.
- Eggs
- Whipped whites add lift and structure, and they also form the bulk of the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, when boiled, creates the syrup that sets the filling.
The step that matters
Pour the hot sugar syrup onto the beaten egg whites. The syrup must be boiled to a clear, candy-like stage and poured in a thin stream while beating. This cooks the whites slightly and gives the fluffy, marshmallow-like texture of the filling.
“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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