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Dessert

Corn Starch Cake

A light, fluffy cake made with butter, sugar, sweet milk, egg whites, corn starch, flour, and baking soda.

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

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Corn Starch 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. In a bowl, mix the flour, corn starch, and cream of tartar together.

  3. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the sweet milk and egg yolk to the butter mixture and mix well.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

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

  7. Add almond extract to taste and mix gently.

Bake

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the cake and gives it a light crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Sugar
Creamed with butter, it sweetens the cake and helps give a fine, tender texture.
Corn starch
Lightens the flour blend, producing a tender, delicate crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter and stabilizes the egg whites, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff egg whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out air and makes the cake dense, so fold gently until just combined.

“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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