Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Caramel Cup Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the sweet milk, sugar, butter, flour, and baking powder until smooth.
Pour the batter into cake pans and bake until golden.
Make the caramel
For the caramel, heat sugar in a hot skillet without stirring until it melts. Once melted, stir in the butter and cream, and cook until thick.
Let the caramel cool before spreading it between the cake layers.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure of the cake crumb as the batter sets.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a tender crumb in the cake and caramel.
- Cream
- Adds fat and smoothness to the caramel, helping it turn thick and creamy.
The step that matters
Melting the sugar for the caramel. Sugar melted without stirring heats evenly and turns to caramel without crystallising. Stirring can make it grainy, and over-cooking it turns it bitter.
“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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