Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓
Sunshine Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream the butter and gradually add the sugar, mixing well.
Add the beaten egg yolks and milk, then mix in the flour and flavoring.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk before adding it to the mixture.
Sift the cream of tartar into the flour before combining.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake until golden.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 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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Flour + buttertop 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).
Flour and butter 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 yolks
- Add richness and emulsify the batter, helping the cake set with a tender structure.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavor, and creaming it traps air that helps the cake rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake, helps it brown, and aerates the butter when creamed.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as its proteins set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise and brown.
- Cream of tartar
- An acid that stabilizes the batter and reacts with baking soda to support rising.
The step that matters
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk. Baking soda clumps when added dry and reacts unevenly. Dissolving it in liquid first spreads it through the batter, giving an even rise and color without bitter or patchy spots.
“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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