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 ↓
Cake Making
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Grease a cake pan and line it with greased paper if using fruit.
If using baking soda, dissolve it in a little hot water or mix it with molasses.
Make the batter
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
Add the beaten egg yolks, alternating with the milk and flour.
Sift the baking powder or cream of tartar with the last of the flour.
Dredge any heavy fruit in flour and fold it into the batter.
Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites carefully.
Bake and serve
Do not move the pan more than necessary while baking.
If the cake browns too quickly, cover it with paper.
The cake is done when it leaves the sides of the pan or a straw comes out dry.
Let the cake cool for a few moments before removing it from the pan.
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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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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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Eggs
- Whites trapped by beating add lift and an airy crumb, while yolks add richness and structure.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Its proteins set during baking, giving the cake its structure.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter to aid aeration and adds sweetness and browning.
- Baking powder or cream of tartar
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acid such as molasses to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous stirring deflates it and leads to a dense cake.
“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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