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 ↓
White 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 cake batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then fold into the wet mixture.
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until golden.
Make the frosting and finish
For the frosting, boil 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of sweet milk for 3 to 5 minutes until it creams.
Beat the frosting until cool and spread it between the layers and on top of the cake.
Optionally, top with fresh grated coconut.
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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts and lightens the cake crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds richness and a tender texture.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, when creamed, helps give a fine, even crumb.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites and flour. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites; stirring vigorously deflates the batter and can leave a dense, flat cake.
Swap the coconut
The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg. 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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.