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Dessert

Silver Cake

A light, fluffy cake made with butter, sugar, egg whites, cornstarch, milk, flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and vanilla or almond flavor.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Silver Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and gradually beat in the sugar, then add the flavoring.

  2. Mix the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together and sift.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  4. Add the cornstarch and milk to the beaten sugar and butter mixture.

  5. Gently fold in the egg whites and sifted flour, mixing quickly and thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff froth, they trap air that gives the cake its light structure.
Flour
Its proteins set during baking, forming the cake's main structure.
Butter
Its fat coats flour particles and shortens gluten, giving a tender texture and rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine, tender crumb.
Cornstarch
Lowers the flour's protein content, producing a softer, more delicate crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that makes the cake rise.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the egg whites and sifted flour. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Stirring hard or too long knocks that air out, leaving a dense, flat result, so fold just until combined.

“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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