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 ↓
Corn Starch Cake
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
Cream together the powdered sugar and butter until it resembles thick cream.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add to the mixture.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the batter.
Mix in the cream of tartar, flour, and corn starch until well combined.
Add your choice of flavoring and pour the batter into a prepared cake pan.
Bake and finish
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.
Frost if desired.
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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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Butter
- Creamed with the sugar, it adds fat and tenderness to the crumb.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter and stabilizes the whipped egg whites, helping them hold their volume.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Corn starch
- Lowers the protein content of the flour mix, producing a finer, more tender crumb.
The step that matters
Folding the beaten egg whites into the batter. Whites hold air only when whipped to stiff peaks and folded gently. Overmixing or deflating them loses the air that gives the cake its lift.
“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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