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 ↓
Washington Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the sweet milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, and flour; mix well.
Flavor the batter with lemon.
Divide the batter between two round cake pans.
Bake and assemble
Bake until done, then remove from the oven.
Spread apple sauce or jelly on one cake layer.
Place the second cake layer on top and sift powdered sugar over it.
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 + 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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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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 fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, working with baking soda to leaven and stabilize the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps tenderize the crumb and aid browning.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter structure.
The step that matters
Combining baking soda and cream of tartar into the batter. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide efficiently. Mixing the leavening evenly through the batter, and baking promptly after, helps the cake rise evenly rather than unevenly or flatly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, cream, flour, apple):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, cream, flour, apple. 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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