Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Katie's Feather 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Make the batter
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the sweet milk.
Flavor the batter with lemon to your taste.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 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.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a soft, tender texture when creamed.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour and loosens the batter.
The step that matters
Alternating the dry ingredients with the milk. Adding flour and milk in portions keeps the batter smooth and well emulsified, and avoids overworking the flour, which would make the cake tough.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, milk, butter. 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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