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 ↓
Whipped-Cream 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat sugar, eggs, butter, and milk together until well combined.
Mix cream of tartar and baking soda into the flour, then add to the wet mixture.
Pour batter into a small square pan and bake until golden.
Top and serve
Once the cake is cool, whip the sweet cream to stiff peaks, sweetening and flavoring to taste.
Spread the whipped cream over the cake and serve fresh.
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.
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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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Provide structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar and baking soda
- React together to help the cake rise and lighten its crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the crumb.
- Sweet cream
- Whipped into stiff peaks to make a light topping that adds moisture and richness.
The step that matters
Whip the sweet cream to stiff peaks. Cream whips best when cold and stops just short of stiff peaks. Overwhipping turns it grainy and can cause it to separate, while underwhipping leaves a runny topping that will not hold its shape on the cake.
“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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