Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Tea Cakes
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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add cream and eggs, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine baking soda and cream of tartar.
Gradually add dry ingredients to wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Season with mace and cinnamon to taste.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of batter onto a baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.
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 + 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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Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,784 recipes
Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps give a light, fluffy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air for a tender crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, binding the batter as they set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cakes rise and spread lightly.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so it reacts with baking soda, supporting rise and a tender texture.
The step that matters
Gradually add dry ingredients to wet mixture. Adding the dry ingredients slowly and stirring until just smooth keeps the batter evenly mixed and prevents lumps. Overmixing after the flour-type ingredients go in can develop gluten and toughen the cakes.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, cream, egg, cinnamon):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, egg, cinnamon. 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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