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Dessert

Strawberry Short Cake

A light cake with mashed strawberries and a corn starch sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Strawberry Short Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.

  3. Cream the butter, then add the egg and milk, mixing well.

  4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, then pour into a baking pan.

  5. Bake until golden brown, then remove from the pan and cut in half with a warm knife.

Fill and serve

  1. Remove some soft cake from the center and fill with mashed berries sweetened with sugar.

  2. Layer more berries on top and serve with sauce.

  3. For the sauce, stir corn starch into boiling water until thickened.

  4. Add sugar and salt to taste, then pour over mashed berries and a small piece of butter.

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.

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

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiling water into a glossy sauce as it gelatinizes.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with corn starch. Corn starch must be stirred into boiling water so its granules swell and gelatinize; if it is not stirred well, lumps form and the sauce stays thin or uneven.

“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 strawberry shortcake recipes

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