Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Sour Cream 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs until light, then add salt and flavoring.
Make the batter
Mix the sour cream with the baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water.
Combine the sour cream mixture with the butter and sugar mixture.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing well.
Pour the batter into a loaf pan or two layer cake pans.
Bake
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center 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.
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 + 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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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
- Eggs
- Beaten eggs add structure and help bind the batter together.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air that gives the cake a light, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter, it adds sweetness and helps create a light, fluffy texture.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tang, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that leavens the batter.
The step that matters
Dissolving baking soda into the sour cream. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas for rising. Mixing it into the sour cream first distributes it evenly, so the cake rises uniformly rather than in pockets.
“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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