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 ↓
Maraschino Cherry 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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet milk and eggs, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.
Fold in the chopped walnuts and Maraschino cherries, along with a splash of cherry juice.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Once cooled, layer the cakes with soft icing, and decorate with additional nuts and halved Maraschino cherries.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Walnut + cherrytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together347 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cherrytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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
- Creams with the sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, binding the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, lightly browned crumb.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and stirring only until smooth limits gluten development, keeping the cake tender rather than tough and dense.
Swap the cherry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour, walnut):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Cherrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour, walnut. 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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