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 ↓
Queen Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Beat the butter until creamy.
Gradually add the sugar, flour, currants, and flavoring.
Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately, then together.
Mix in the baking soda dissolved in hot milk and thick cream.
Stir this mixture into the batter and beat thoroughly for several minutes.
Bake
Butter small queen-cake tins and fill them halfway with the batter.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes.
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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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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Flour + milktop 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
- Adds richness and tenderness, and helps the batter hold air when beaten.
- Eggs
- Provide structure as they set, and help bind and lighten the batter.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it bakes.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the milk and cream to lift the batter as it bakes.
- Currants
- Add fruitiness and chewy pockets of sweetness throughout the cake.
The step that matters
Beating the batter after adding the baking soda mixture. Thorough beating for several minutes builds air and evenly distributes the leavening, so the cakes rise lightly and evenly. Under-beating can leave a dense texture with uneven rise.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, lemon, egg, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, lemon, egg, milk, 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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