Name: Silver Cake or Seafoam Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups powdered sugar; 2 cups pastry flour; ½ cup butter; 1 cup milk; 1 cup corn starch; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 6 egg whites; 1 teaspoon almond extract

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Silver Cake or Seafoam 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, cream the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg whites and almond extract, mixing well.
In another bowl, combine the pastry flour, corn starch, and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the milk.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together485 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,955 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Egg whites: Add structure and lift to the batter as they set in the oven.
Pastry flour: Provides the main structure with low protein, keeping the crumb tender.
Corn starch: Softens the flour's gluten, producing a fine, delicate texture.
Baking powder: Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps create a fine, even crumb when creamed.

The step that matters

Alternating dry ingredients with milk. Adding the dry ingredients gradually and alternating with milk keeps the batter smooth and prevents overmixing, which would toughen the crumb by developing gluten.

“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.

Corn Cake90 recipes

Corn Starch Cake89 recipes

Almond Sponge Cake26 recipes

Almond Custard22 recipes

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Silver Cake or Seafoam Cake