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 ↓
Date 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Mix in the flour, milk, and lemon flavoring.
Remove the stones from the dates and chop them finely, then fold them into the batter.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a loaf pan or divide between two baking sheets.
Bake until golden brown.
Ice the cake between layers and on top, then decorate with split dates.
Cut into squares for serving.
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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Milk + flourtop 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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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds richness and tenderness by coating flour and creaming air into the batter.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay tender.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Dates
- Add moisture and natural sweetness to the crumb.
The step that matters
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Each egg must be fully incorporated before the next is added; otherwise the creamed butter and sugar can separate or curdle, and the batter loses the air it needs to rise evenly.
Swap the dates
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Datesthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, butter, milk, flour, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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