Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓
Corn Starch 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the egg whites and mix well.
Sift together the corn starch, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, mixing until smooth.
Flavor with lemon or bitter almond extract as desired.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake 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.
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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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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Corn + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,927 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Provides a tender, fine crumb with a light texture because it contains no gluten.
- Egg whites
- Trap air when beaten and set during baking, giving the cake its structure and lift.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness and carries flavor through the batter.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps hold air for a lighter texture.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilizing the egg whites and activating the baking soda for rising.
The step that matters
Add the egg whites and mix well. Overmixing once the dry ingredients are added can knock out the air and develop toughness, so mix only until the batter is smooth. Egg whites carry most of the lift in this cake, so keep their air intact as far as practical.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, corn, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Coconutfits better
- Strawberryfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, corn, cream. 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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