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 ↓
White 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Sift the flour with baking powder.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Make the batter
Stir the milk into a larger bowl, then gradually add the flour mixture to the milk to form a thin batter.
Combine the creamed butter and sugar with the batter, mixing well.
Fold in a little of the beaten egg whites, then add more flour, and finally fold in the remaining egg whites.
Pour the batter into three greased cake pans.
Bake
Bake for about 15 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.
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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Butter + milktop 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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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks and folded in, they lighten the batter and give the cake its airy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the gluten-based structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air, adding tenderness and a rich flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, tender crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and liquid that hydrates the flour to form the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only while whipped. Overmixing or deflating them with vigorous stirring loses the air that lifts the cake, so fold gently and in the stated order.
“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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