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 ↓
Velvet 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 powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the cold water, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the flour and mix until smooth.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Optionally, add fruit and spices or make a chocolate version by baking as a jelly cake.
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 + 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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Flour + eggtop 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture when creamed with butter.
- Eggs
- Add structure as they set, and richness and moisture to the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, reacting with baking soda to help the cake rise and stabilise the structure.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time. Each egg must be fully mixed in before the next is added. Adding them too quickly can split the creamed butter and sugar mixture, which weakens the batter's ability to trap air and gives a denser cake.
“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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