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Dessert

A Prize Cake

A cake made with butter, sugar, milk, egg whites, flour, baking powder, lemon and vanilla, topped with a sugar icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 19,175 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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

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

  2. Beat the butter until creamy.

  3. Gradually add the sugar and cream together.

  4. Add milk as you mix.

  5. Sift the flour.

  6. Mix in the baking powder, setting aside until needed.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then keep them cool until ready to use.

  2. Combine the flour mixture with the creamed butter and sugar.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  4. Grease the cake pans with lard and line them with parchment paper.

  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

  6. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the icing

  1. Boil 1 cup of sugar with enough cold water until it threads.

  2. Let the syrup cool for about 30 seconds.

  3. Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites while beating continuously until cold.

  4. Add the lemon juice to the icing.

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.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together19,983 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, when creamed with butter, helps build a light texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they add lift and an airy structure to the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps loosen the batter for even mixing and baking.

The step that matters

Pouring the syrup over the egg whites. The syrup must be boiled to the thread stage and cooled briefly, then poured slowly while beating. Hot syrup cooks the whites into a stable, glossy icing; pouring too fast or too hot can deflate or scramble them.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour, vanilla):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Peachbetter flavor fit
  3. Strawberrybetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, milk, egg, flour, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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