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 ↓
Walnut 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg whites and mix well.
In another bowl, combine the flour, corn starch, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the sweet milk.
Fold in the chopped walnuts last.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into two square cake pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Once cooled, ice with soft icing and decorate with walnut halves.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Corn + walnuttop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together349 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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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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Corn + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and help bind the batter while adding lift.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, supporting the baking soda's rise and stabilizing the texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, fine crumb when creamed with butter.
The step that matters
Folding in the walnuts last. Adding nuts at the end and mixing only until combined avoids overworking the batter, which would develop gluten and make the cake tough.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, corn, butter, milk, egg, cream):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, corn, butter, milk, egg, cream. 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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