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 ↓
Apple 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.
If using the optional ingredients, mix in the milk, additional flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden brown.
Make the jelly and assemble
For the jelly, combine the grated apples, sugar, grated lemon rind, lemon juice, and one egg in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil, then let it cool.
Spread the jelly between the layers of the baked cake.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Butter + milktop 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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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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 and richness as they set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat and tenderness, and carries flavour through the creamed batter.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the cake's main structure once its proteins set in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Grated apples
- Add moisture, tartness and fruity flavour to the cake and jelly.
The step that matters
Bringing the apple jelly to a boil. The jelly is made with one raw egg and must be heated fully so the egg thickens and is cooked through. Letting it cool properly afterward helps it set before spreading between the cake layers.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour, lemon, milk, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, lemon, milk, cream. 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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