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 ↓
Fig Cake and Filling
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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the milk and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, egg whites, and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix until smooth.
Layer and bake
Pour half of the batter into a greased cake pan.
Spread the chopped figs over the batter, ensuring they touch each other.
Pour the remaining batter over the figs and bake until golden.
Make the filling and serve
For the filling, boil the chopped figs, sugar, and water for 15 minutes.
Spread the fig filling between the layers of cake while warm.
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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Milk + figtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,026 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + figtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,192 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).
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
- Egg whites
- Provide structure and lift, helping the cake set and hold its crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the cake its body and structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness, richness, and a soft crumb.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crumb stay tender and browned.
- Figs
- Add moisture and sweetness, and form the fruit filling between the layers.
The step that matters
Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mix only until the batter is smooth. Overmixing develops too much gluten in the flour, which makes the cake tough and dense rather than tender.
Swap the fig
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figthe original
- Coconutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg. 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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