Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Delicate 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).
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk.
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the milk mixture to the creamed mixture.
Sift the flour and cream of tartar together, then gradually add to the wet ingredients.
Flavor the batter with lemon or vanilla.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and gently fold them into the batter.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + buttertop 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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Milk + flourtop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Butter
- Creamed with the sugar to add richness, tenderness and fat for a soft crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps hold air for a tender texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and milk to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise and stabilizes the egg whites.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Stiff egg whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Stirring vigorously or folding too long deflates them, so the cake comes out dense. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, butter, flour, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, flour, cream, egg. 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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