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Dessert

Lady Cake

A sweet cake made with boiled milk, butter, powdered sugar, flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, egg whites, and bitter almond flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lady 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

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine the boiled milk and butter until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the powdered sugar and mix well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk mixture.

  5. Sift the flour and cream of tartar together, then add to the wet ingredients gradually.

Fold and bake

  1. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gently fold in the egg whites and flavor with bitter almond.

  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and contributes to a fine, tender texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and boiled milk to help the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, stabilizing the whites and reacting with baking soda for lift.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that makes the cake light. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air from collapsing and the crumb from turning dense.

“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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