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 ↓
Quickly Made Layer Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and butter three cake tins.
Make the batter
In a bowl, rub the butter into the sugar.
Add the eggs and stir quickly without beating them.
Mix in the milk until smooth.
Sprinkle the baking powder and some flour over the mixture, then stir thoroughly, adding enough flour to thicken.
Pour the batter into the prepared tins.
Bake and serve
Bake quickly and spread any desired fillings between the layers.
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 + 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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and sugar, and softens the crumb.
- Sugar
- Creaming with butter adds sweetness and helps trap air for a lighter texture.
- Eggs
- Provide structure as they set and add moisture and richness to the batter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it blends smoothly.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise and become light.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake, which sets as it bakes.
The step that matters
Stirring the eggs in without beating them. Gentle stirring keeps the batter from being over-aerated, so the layers rise evenly and keep a fine, tender crumb rather than collapsing or turning tough.
“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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