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 ↓
Dolly Varden 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).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the milk and mix well.
Sift in the flour, then add the egg whites, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Mix until smooth and well combined.
Add rosewater to taste.
Color and bake
Divide the batter in half; leave one half plain and color the other half with confectioner's cochineal.
Pour the plain batter into a greased cake pan and then the colored batter on top.
Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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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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).
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps trap air for a light crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for tenderness.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as the egg proteins and starch cook.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lift to the batter as their proteins set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilizing the egg whites and helping the baking soda react.
The step that matters
Layering the plain and colored batter. Pouring the colored batter on top of the plain batter in the pan, rather than mixing them, keeps the two halves separate so the cake shows distinct layers. Batter that is overmixed or poured unevenly can blur the division between them.
“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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