Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Bread Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
In a large bowl, combine the bread dough, sugar, eggs, butter, spices, and fruit.
Mix thoroughly with your hands until smooth; the more you work it, the better.
Add a pinch of baking soda before pouring the mixture into pans.
Let the mixture rise until light.
Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.
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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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Light bread dough
- Provides the base structure and lightness that the cake rises from.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness as they set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps browning in the baked crust.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidity in the mixture to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Mixing and rising. Baking soda needs an acid to react and produce gas, so it should be added just before the pans go in, and the batter should be rising before baking for a light texture.
“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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