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 ↓
Feather Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Combine sugar and butter in a mixing bowl.
Sift flour with baking powder.
Add sifted flour to the bowl.
Break the egg or use the egg whites.
Fill the measuring cup with milk or water.
Make the batter
Mix all ingredients together.
Beat well.
Divide the batter into 2 layers.
Bake
Bake.
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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Butter + flourtop 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).
Butter and flour 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
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, lifting it so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Butter
- Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a richer flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb soft and browned.
- Egg
- Adds structure and binds the batter, helping it hold its rise.
- Milk or water
- Supplies liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its pourable texture.
The step that matters
Beat well. Thorough beating blends the fat, sugar, egg and liquid into an even batter and spreads the baking powder evenly. Uneven mixing can give a cake with uneven rise and a coarse crumb.
“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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