Name: Cream Kaspberry Short-Cake
Ingredients: 1 pint rich sour cream; 1 teaspoon baking soda; pinch of salt; flour (to make a soft dough); butter (for spreading); whipped sweet cream; powdered sugar (for dusting); berries (for layering)

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream Kaspberry Short-Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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 the dough

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix sour cream, baking soda, and salt.
Add flour gradually to form a soft dough.
Roll the dough to 1.5 inches thick.
Cut the rolled dough into layers.

Bake and assemble

Bake the layers in a deep tin until golden.
Separate the baked layers.
Spread butter on each layer.
Layer the baked crusts with sweetened berries and whipped cream.
Top with whipped cream and dust with powdered sugar.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Sour cream: Adds acidity and moisture, and reacts with baking soda to help the dough rise.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas, lifting the layers as they bake.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the soft dough together through rolling and baking.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the baked layers and keeps them from drying out.
Whipped sweet cream: Adds moisture and a light, rich texture between and on top of the layers.
Berries: Add sweetness, tartness, and fruity aroma that contrast with the rich layers.

The step that matters

Add flour gradually to form a soft dough. Adding flour gradually lets you stop once the dough is soft. Too much flour makes the layers dense and dry, because flour absorbs liquid and develops gluten when worked.

“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.

White Cake431 recipes

Pound Cake373 recipes

Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes

Spice Cake344 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Cream Kaspberry Short-Cake