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 ↓
Marshmallow 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 the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix sugar, sweet milk, cornstarch, butter, pastry flour, and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg whites into the batter until combined.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden.
Make the icing
For the icing, melt the marshmallows in the oven for a few minutes.
Once melted, stir the marshmallows until thoroughly mixed and cool before spreading on the 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.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 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).
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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks to lighten the batter and help it rise.
- Pastry flour
- Provides the starch and gluten structure that holds the cake together.
- Cornstarch
- Tenderises the crumb by diluting gluten, giving a finer, softer texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness, tenderness and flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Marshmallows
- Melt into a sweet, sticky icing that coats the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the cake light. Stirring them vigorously knocks out that air and leaves a dense cake, so fold gently until just combined.
“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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