Why it works: Flour and raisin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Yellow 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 bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the flour, water, and melted butter, mixing until smooth.
Stir in the baking soda and cream of tartar.
Add flavoring and raisins if desired.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 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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Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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 yolks
- Add richness and help bind the batter, giving structure and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, beaten with the yolks, helps create a light, fluffy texture.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for flavor and a moist, tender crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that works with baking soda to help the cake rise and stabilizes the egg foam.
The step that matters
Beating the egg yolks and sugar. Beating until light and fluffy traps air in the batter. That air expands in the oven and helps the cake rise, so under-beating can leave a dense result.
Swap the raisin
The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, butter, cream):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinthe original
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter, cream. 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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