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Dessert

White Cake

A light, fluffy cake made with butter, flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, sweet milk, almond extract, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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White Cake

Why it works: Almond and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

White 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the flour and baking powder, mixing well.

  4. Stir in the sweet milk and almond extract until combined.

  5. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the batter.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. If desired, spread grated coconut mixed with sugar between the layers.

Make the icing

  1. For icing, mix 1 cup powdered sugar with the egg whites and enough dissolved chocolate to achieve a rich dark color.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Almond + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Coconut + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks and folded in, adding air and lift to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, making the cake rise and become light.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and helps the batter blend into a smooth, pourable mix.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stiff egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the batter and leaves a dense cake.

Swap the coconut

The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, milk, almond, egg, chocolate):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Coconutthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, milk, almond, egg, chocolate. 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.

More white cake recipes

Egg 9Icing 8Plain 6Warsaw 5Almond 3Coconut 3 See all 331 →

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