Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
White Oake
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet cream and mix well.
Make the batter
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg whites into the sugar mixture.
Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda, then gradually add to the mixture.
Flavor with lemon to taste and mix until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Cream + buttertop 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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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 into stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts and lightens the cake's crumb.
- Flour
- Its proteins set during baking to give the cake its structure.
- White sugar
- Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cake and helps create a tender texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that stabilizes the whipped egg whites and reacts with baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring vigorously or folding too long deflates the foam, leaving a dense cake, so fold gently and only until no streaks remain.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, flour, butter, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, flour, butter, egg. 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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