Why it works: Milk and nuts work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 982 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
White 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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a mixing bowl, combine the egg whites and beat until stiff peaks form.
In another bowl, mix the milk and baking powder.
Gently fold the milk mixture into the beaten egg whites.
Add the chopped nuts and mix until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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 + nutstop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together982 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + nutstop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,624 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Whipped into stiff peaks, they trap air that gives the cake its light, open structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the heat of the oven, making the batter rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it can be folded and baked evenly.
- Chopped nuts
- Add texture and a bit of flavor to the crumb.
The step that matters
Folding the milk mixture into the beaten egg whites. Gentle folding keeps the air bubbles in the whipped whites intact. Stirring vigorously would deflate the foam, and the cake would bake up dense instead of light.
Swap the nuts
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg):
- Pecansfits better
- Cocoafits better
- Peasfits better
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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