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 ↓
Ice Cream 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, cream together the butter and powdered sugar.
Add the milk, flour, eggs, wine, and grated nutmeg; mix well.
Pour the batter into iron gem pans.
Bake and serve
Bake until light and hollow in the center.
Once cooled, cut a round hole in the top of each cake.
Fill the hole with ice cream just before serving.
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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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and lift, setting the cake as they cook.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and carrying flavor.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake's airy shape as it bakes.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps create a fine, tender crumb when creamed with butter.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps the batter bake into a tender, set cake.
The step that matters
Bake until light and hollow in the center. Underbaked centers collapse as they cool, while overbaking dries the cake. The cake must set firmly enough to hold its hollow shape for the ice cream filling.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, wine):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Tarragonfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, wine. 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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