Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Spice 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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter.
Add the egg yolks and mix well.
Stir in the sour milk and baking soda.
Gradually add the flour and mixed spices, mixing until smooth.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Let cool and frost between layers as desired.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cake brown and stay tender.
- Butter
- Creamed with the sugar to trap air and add richness and a tender crumb.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness, fat and emulsifying power that bind the batter and set during baking.
- Sour milk
- Provides moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk to release gas, leavening the cake.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
The step that matters
Stir in the sour milk and baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the sour milk, to release carbon dioxide. Adding it promptly after mixing, and not letting the batter sit, keeps the gas available to lift the cake during baking.
“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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