Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Honey 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.
Mix the batter
Mix the sugar and sour cream together.
Dredge in the flour and add honey to flavor the mixture.
Stir well to thoroughly combine all ingredients.
Bake and serve
Add the baking soda and beat the mixture for another 5 minutes.
Pour into a buttered tin and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 45 minutes.
Serve 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.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Sugar + honeytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,932 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + honeytop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,637 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake moist and tender.
- Rich sour cream
- Adds moisture and richness, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour cream's acid to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Honey
- Adds sweetness, moisture and a distinctive aroma.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda. Baking soda reacts with the acid in sour cream right away, releasing gas that lifts the batter. Its leavening power fades if the batter waits, so the mixture should go into the tin and oven promptly.
“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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