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 ↓
Blackberry 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 cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the milk, baking soda, flour, blackberry jam, and spices.
Divide the batter into two greased cake pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Make the icing and assemble
For the icing, boil 1 cup sugar with 4 tablespoons water until it forms a string.
Gradually pour the hot sugar syrup over the beaten egg whites, whisking until smooth.
Spread the boiled icing between the layers of the cooled 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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + blackberrytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together315 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + blackberrytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together522 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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 and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness, and the whites whip into the icing.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic jam to help the cake rise.
- Blackberry jam
- Adds fruit flavour, sweetness and moisture to the batter.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be at a boil so it cooks the whites as you pour; pouring slowly while whisking keeps the icing smooth rather than scrambled or grainy.
Swap the blackberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Blackberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour. 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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