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 ↓
Cinnamon 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form.
Mix the sugar, milk, butter, flour, and baking powder in another bowl until smooth.
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture.
Bake and ice
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden.
Combine the egg yolks, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl to make the icing.
Spread the icing on the top and sides of the cooled cake.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Whites whipped to stiff peaks trap air, giving the cake lift and a light crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and protein that set during baking to form the cake's structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, causing the batter to rise in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
- Milk
- Supplies moisture that hydrates the flour and helps form the batter.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and moisture, along with a deeper, molasses-like flavor in the icing.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whites. Stirring vigorously deflates the foam, which leads to a denser, flatter cake.
“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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