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 ↓
Cream 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 the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet milk, corn starch, flour, and baking powder; mix until well combined.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake and fill
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
For the filling, whip the cream, sweeten, and flavor to taste, then spread between the layers.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + corntop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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
- Egg whites
- Beaten into foam, they trap air that lifts and gives the cake its airy structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the batter rise.
- Corn starch
- Softens the crumb and gives a tender, fine texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, tenderizing the crumb and carrying flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the creamed mixture hold air for lightness.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure as its proteins set in the oven.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. The egg white foam holds the air that lifts the cake. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, leaving a dense, flat crumb instead of a light one.
“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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