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Dessert

Birthday Cake

A layered cake made with sugar, butter, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, vanilla, cocoa, and pink fruit coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Birthday Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

Make the batter

  1. Add the milk and vanilla to the beaten egg yolks.

  2. Mix the liquid mixture alternately with the flour and baking powder into the creamed butter and sugar.

  3. Beat well, then fold in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Divide the batter into thirds.

  5. Add cocoa powder to one third of the batter.

  6. Add pink fruit coloring to another third of the batter.

  7. Leave the last third plain.

Bake

  1. Spoon the batter into a buttered cake pan, alternating colors.

  2. Bake for 1 hour, being careful not to use too much pink coloring.

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.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Vanilla + cocoa powdertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Egg yolks and whites add structure and richness, and the whites add lift when folded in.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich texture.
Granulated sugar
Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help hold air in the batter.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.

The step that matters

Adding the pink fruit coloring. Fruit coloring is strong and can turn the batter too deep a shade or affect its texture if overused, so add it gradually until the desired pink is reached.

“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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