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 ↓
Cream Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Pour 1 cup boiling water over 1 cup butter.
Add 2 cups flour and stir until smooth.
Set aside to cool.
When cooled, add 5 eggs and stir until well mixed.
Add ¼ teaspoon baking soda.
Butter a pan.
Drop in the mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Bake at 400°F (200°C).
Make the cream
For the cream, boil 1 pint milk.
Add ½ cup flour, ½ cup sugar, and 2 beaten eggs.
Stir until thick as cream.
Flavor the cream with lemon or vanilla extract.
Assemble
Remove the tops from the cakes.
Fill the hollows with the cream.
Replace the tops.
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 + flourtop 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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and thicken the cream, giving structure as they set with heat.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cakes and thickens the cream.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and moisture to the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter to help the cakes rise and lighten.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the cream, adding moisture and richness.
The step that matters
Stir the cream until thick. The flour and beaten eggs must cook in the hot milk while stirring so the starch swells and the eggs set smoothly. Stopping early leaves a thin cream, and overheating can scramble the eggs.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar. 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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