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 ↓
White Cup-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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the sour cream alternately with half of the flour, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until light and fluffy.
Stir the beaten eggs into the mixture alternately with the remaining flour.
Add the lemon extract and baking soda, mixing until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25–30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Cream + sugartop 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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Flour + sugartop 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).
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
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving a fine, tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Creamed with butter for lightness and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and their beaten air helps the cake rise.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity helps the baking soda react.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Mixing the batter until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Overmixing after the flour and baking soda are added can make the cake tough and dense rather than tender.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, flour, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, flour, sugar, 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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