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 ↓
Lemon Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°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 400°F (200°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet milk and egg yolks, mixing well.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, and lemon rind, and mix until smooth.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into greased layer cake pans.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the layers and frost with boiled icing flavored with lemon juice.
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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks and folded in to lighten the batter and help the cake rise.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness, moisture, and emulsifying fat to the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the heat, causing the cake to rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that lightens the batter. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing, so the layers rise evenly and stay light.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, 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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