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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the sweet milk and mix well.
Sift the flour with the baking powder and gradually add to the mixture.
Fold in the well-beaten egg whites gently.
Bake and assemble
Divide the batter into three layers and bake until golden.
Whip the cream with the sugar until soft peaks form and add flavoring.
Spread the whipped cream between the layers of 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.
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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Eggs whites
- Whipped air that gives the batter lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Butter
- Fat that adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the layers rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Rich sweet cream
- Whipped into a soft, moist filling that adds richness between the layers.
The step that matters
Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when whipped, and stirring them vigorously collapses that foam. Folding gently keeps the batter light so the layers rise evenly.
“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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