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 ↓
A Good Cup-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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and softened butter until smooth and light.
In another bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs until light and thick.
In a third bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Add the yolks to the creamed mixture and beat for one minute.
Mix in the milk, spices, and flavoring.
Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.
Gradually add the sifted flour, mixing until just combined.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into small, greased cake tins.
Bake until a clean straw inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool before removing them from the tins.
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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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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Egg + flourtop 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
- Eggs
- Yolks add richness and emulsify the batter; whipped whites trap air for a light, airy crumb.
- Butter
- Fat that, creamed with sugar, traps air and gives the cakes a tender texture.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter to aerate the batter and add sweetness and browning.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets as the cakes bake.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Stirring vigorously knocks out the air trapped in the whites, which leads to dense cakes. Folding gently keeps the foam intact so the cakes rise light.
“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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