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Dessert

Lady Cake

A light, almond-flavored cake made with boiled milk, butter, powdered sugar, flour, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lady 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. 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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the boiled milk and mix well.

  3. Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

  4. Fold in the egg whites and flavor with bitter almond.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving a light, tender crumb and rich flavor.
Powdered sugar
Creamed with butter to add sweetness and help create a fine, soft texture.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and helps stabilize the egg whites and improve rising with baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Whites of 2 eggs
Folded in to add lift and help set the structure of the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air that gives the cake lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous mixing deflates the batter and yields a denser 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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