Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Feather 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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the sugar and butter until creamy.
Add the egg and mix well.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, alternating with the milk.
Stir in lemon flavoring and coconut if desired.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + coconuttop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,233 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Egg
- Adds structure and binds the batter while helping it hold together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and creams with sugar to trap air.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender when creamed with butter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to hydrate the flour and loosen the batter.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, alternating with the milk. Adding dry ingredients and liquid in alternating portions keeps the batter smooth and emulsified. Mixing too much after the flour goes in develops gluten, which can make the cake tough.
Swap the coconut
The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, butter, egg, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, butter, egg, lemon. 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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