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 ↓
Eggless 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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the flour, milk, and molasses, mixing well.
Stir in the baking soda, currants, cinnamon, and any additional spices.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake for about 30-40 minutes or 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.
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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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming aerates the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, slightly acidic flavor.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour and adds moisture and softness to the batter.
The step that matters
Stir in the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the molasses here, to release gas for rising. Mixing it in evenly keeps the rise uniform, and the batter should be baked soon after mixing so the gas is not lost.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, milk, molasses, cinnamon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, milk, molasses, cinnamon. 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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