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Dessert

Washington Pie

A layered cake made from sugar, butter, eggs, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, milk, and preserves, topped with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Washington Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Rub the sugar and butter together until creamy.

  2. Beat the eggs separately.

  3. Stir in the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda dissolved in milk.

  4. Divide the mixture between two well-buttered shallow tin plates.

Bake and assemble

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

  2. Once baked, place preserves or jelly between the cakes.

  3. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top cake before serving.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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
Beaten eggs add structure and lift to the sponge as they set in the oven.
Butter
Creaming butter with sugar traps air that helps give the cake a tender crumb.
Flour
Flour forms the cake's main structure once it sets during baking.
Cream of tartar
Cream of tartar is an acid that reacts with baking soda to help the cakes rise.
Baking soda
Baking soda, dissolved in milk and activated by the acid, produces gas that leavens the cakes.
Preserves or jelly
Preserves add sweetness and fruity moisture between the cake layers.

The step that matters

Dividing the batter evenly between the two buttered tins. Even layers bake at the same rate and stack neatly. Well-buttered tins help the thin cakes release cleanly without tearing.

“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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