Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Beat the eggs until well combined.
Add the sugar and cream, mixing well.
Dissolve the baking soda in the cream and stir it into the egg mixture.
Mix the cream of tartar with the flour before sifting it in.
Gently fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients.
Bake
Grease the baking pans with lard and pour in the batter.
Bake immediately until golden brown.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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).
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Cream + macetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,009 recipes
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 and richness as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Heavy cream
- Adds moisture, fat and tenderness to the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Provides acidity that activates the baking soda, aiding rise and a lighter texture.
The step that matters
Bake immediately after mixing. Baking soda and cream of tartar begin releasing gas as soon as they are wet and combined. Waiting before baking lets that gas escape, so the cake may rise less and turn out denser.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, cream, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, cream, 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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