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 ↓
Layer 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.
Make the batter
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and cold butter.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder and flour.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing until smooth.
Bake and finish
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until a toothpick comes out clean.
Frost with coconut or sprinkle with English walnuts.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the batter.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing until smooth.. Adding flour in portions and mixing only until smooth keeps the batter lump-free and limits gluten development, which keeps the cake tender rather than tough.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, 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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