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 ↓
White 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the milk and mix well.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Bake and make the frosting
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Beat the egg yolks and gradually add the sugar until well combined.
Stir in the orange juice or other flavoring to taste.
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.
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 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).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
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Egg + flourtop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the cake and gives it a light crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake as it sets in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become airy.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, fine texture when creamed with butter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth batter that bakes evenly.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whipped whites. Stirring hard deflates the foam, so the cake rises less and turns out denser.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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