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Dessert

Strawberry She Cake

A layered strawberry cake made with buttered dough, strawberries, sugar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Strawberry She Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Sift flour and baking powder several times.

  2. Mix in the butter with your fingers.

  3. Add enough milk to make a stiff dough.

  4. Roll out the dough and bake in a very hot oven (400°F / 200°C).

Assemble and serve

  1. Once baked, split the cake horizontally and butter both halves.

  2. Spread the lower half with strawberries and sugar.

  3. Place the top half on and dust with powdered sugar.

  4. Serve with crushed berries and cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the cake once it is mixed with liquid and baked.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender texture and flavour.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the dough rises and becomes light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the mixture binds into a dough.
Strawberries
Add fruity flavour and moisture to the filling.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth contrast to the tart berries.

The step that matters

Bake in a very hot oven. The dough must be baked at a high, stated temperature so the baking powder produces gas quickly and the cake rises and sets before it dries out.

“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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