Name: A Light Cake to Be Baked in Cups
Ingredients: 1½ cups sugar; 1½ cups butter; 2 cups flour; 2 cups sour cream; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon rose water; 4 eggs; a little nutmeg

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

A Light Cake to Be Baked in Cups

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs and beat well.
Mix in the sour cream, rose water, and nutmeg.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

Bake

Pour the batter into cups and bake until golden brown.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,623 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 sugar to trap air, giving the cupcakes a tender crumb and richness.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps the butter hold air when creamed together.
Eggs: Add structure and binding, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cupcakes as its proteins set in the oven.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and a slight tang, keeping the crumb soft.
Baking soda: Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that helps the cupcakes rise.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and mixing gently limits gluten development. Overmixing makes the cupcakes tough, while adding everything at once can cause lumps and uneven batter.

“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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A Light Cake to Be Baked in Cups