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Dessert

Banana Shortcake

A layered cake made with banana slices, vanilla cream, and a batter of flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,430 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Banana Shortcake

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 cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking powder, and enough milk to create a thick batter.

  3. Spread the batter on a baking sheet to a thickness of half an inch and bake until golden.

Assemble

  1. Once cool, split the cake in half and layer sliced bananas in between.

  2. Spread vanilla cream over the bananas, then place the top layer of cake on.

  3. Add another layer of bananas and cream on top.

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add powdered sugar and spread over the top.

  2. Brown the top in the oven and serve with additional cream.

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.

  1. Vanilla + bananatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the cake batter as it sets in the oven.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cake.
Egg whites
Whipped until stiff to form a light, glossy topping that holds its shape.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the cake.
Bananas
Add moisture and natural sweetness between the cake layers.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold stiff peaks before the powdered sugar is added gradually. Under-whipped whites will be runny and will not hold a topping shape, while over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk, vanilla, cream):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, milk, vanilla, 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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