Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Silver Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Beat the butter until creamy, then gradually add the sugar and flavoring.
Mix the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda together, then sift twice.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the cornstarch and milk mixture to the butter and sugar, followed by the egg whites and flour.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 30 minutes.
Frost with chocolate frosting if desired.
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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creams with the sugar to add tenderness and a rich flavor to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed with the butter.
- Egg whites
- Beaten until stiff, they add lift and structure to the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Cornstarch
- Softens the crumb, giving a finer, more tender texture than flour alone.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and works with baking soda to help the cake rise.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites trap air that gives the cake its lift. Overmixing after adding them knocks out that air, leaving a dense, flat 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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