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 ↓
Dark Layer 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 batter
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix sugar, molasses, melted butter, sour milk, and egg yolk.
In another bowl, combine flour and baking soda.
Gradually add dry ingredients to wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Pour batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake and frost
Bake for about 30-35 minutes.
For frosting, beat egg white until stiff and fold in cinnamon.
Spread frosting over 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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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity activates the baking soda and helps keep the crumb tender.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark color, moisture and a deep flavor to the cake.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat that softens the crumb and gives a richer mouthfeel.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps bind the batter into a smooth, tender cake.
The step that matters
Gradually add dry ingredients to wet mixture, stirring until smooth.. Baking soda starts reacting with the acid in sour milk and molasses as soon as wet and dry meet, so the batter should go into the pan and oven without delay. Stirring only until smooth limits gluten development, which keeps the crumb tender rather than tough.
“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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