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Pinafore Cake

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Strawberry and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,385 recipes. Both carry p-vinylguaiacol, which smells spicy, fruity. The science ↓

Pinafore 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.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.

  3. Add the milk, flour, egg whites, and baking powder; mix well.

  4. Flavor the batter with lemon.

  5. Divide the batter into two portions for layer cakes.

  6. To one portion, add the strawberry extract and mix.

  7. Pour both batters into flat tins and bake until golden.

  8. For the cream, heat the milk in a saucepan.

  9. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and cornstarch.

  10. Slowly add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  11. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook until thickened.

  12. Flavor with vanilla and let cool.

  13. Use the cream to layer between the cakes.

  14. Make icing for the top and tint it pink.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Strawberry + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,385 recipes

    Shared aroma: p-vinylguaiacol (spicy, fruity).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Milk + strawberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Swap the strawberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Strawberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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