Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy.
Mix the flour and cream of tartar in another bowl.
Dissolve the baking soda in the cold milk and add to the egg mixture.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, stirring until combined.
Bake and fill
Pour the batter into greased cake pans and bake for 25–30 minutes.
Once cooled, split the cakes and fill with cream.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + milktop 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).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Beaten with sugar to trap air, giving the cake its light, fluffy structure.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, helping the leavening react and stabilising the egg foam.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the beaten eggs hold a light, airy foam.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda mixture to the batter. Baking soda starts reacting as soon as it meets acid, so the batter should go into the pans promptly to keep the gas bubbles that make the cake rise.
“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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