Why it works: Cream and butter 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 ↓
Tri-colored 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).
In a bowl, mix the sugar, cream or milk, flour, butter, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter gently.
Divide the batter into three portions and flavor each differently.
Bake and assemble
Pour the first portion into a greased baking sheet, spreading it to ¾ inch thick.
Repeat with the second and third portions, using different flavors.
Once baked, layer the cakes with the white on top and the yellow on the bottom, using beaten egg white to adhere them.
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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Cream + buttertop 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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Flour + buttertop 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks, they trap air that makes the cake light and airy.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together once baked.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that stabilizes the whipped egg whites and works with baking soda to lift the batter.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the cake a tender crumb.
- Cream or milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the sugar.
The step that matters
Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter gently. Whipped egg whites hold the air that makes the cake light. Stirring vigorously deflates them, so the layers come out dense and flat instead of airy.
“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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