Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
K C Cream 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.
Make the batter
Cream the butter in a bowl.
Add the sugar, egg yolks, and cold water; mix well.
Sift the flour with the baking powder three times, then add to the mixture.
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.
Bake and assemble
Bake in two or three layers at 350°F (175°C).
Layer the cakes with cream filling and dust the top with confectioner's sugar.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
- Egg whites
- Beaten dry and folded in, they trap air that lifts the cake as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the batter and add moisture and tenderness to the crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven, helping the layers rise and become light.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while they are dry and stiff. Folding gently keeps that air in the batter; stirring vigorously deflates it, leaving a flatter, denser cake.
“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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