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 ↓
Lemon 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 cake batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs and mix well.
Stir in the cold water.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.
Divide the batter into three shallow cake tins.
Bake and make the jelly
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
For the jelly, combine ¾ cup sugar, 1 egg, lemon juice, and grated rind in a bowl.
Cook the mixture over steam, stirring thoroughly until thickened.
Assemble
Layer the baked cakes with the lemon jelly.
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 + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and, in the jelly, help it thicken when cooked.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and jelly and helps keep the crumb moist.
The step that matters
Cook the lemon jelly over steam until thickened. Eggs thicken as their proteins set with gentle heat. Stirring thoroughly over steam keeps the heat even so the mixture thickens smoothly instead of curdling or scrambling on the base of the pan.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, flour. 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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