Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓
A Delicious Cream-cake and Sweet Rusks
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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Crumble the butter into the flour and mix thoroughly.
Add the sifted sugar, salt, and candied citron or orange rind.
In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream with the whisked eggs.
Combine the cream mixture with the dry ingredients to form a thick batter.
Before pouring into buttered molds, mix in the carbonate of soda, blended with equal parts sugar and flour.
Bake and finish
Fill the molds two-thirds full and bake for about 45 minutes.
Once baked, gently pull apart the cakes with forks while still hot.
Return the pieces to the oven to crisp with gentle heat.
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.
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour 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
- Butter
- Coats flour particles and adds richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Fine flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake once it is mixed with liquid and bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown and keep moist.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and acidity, giving the crumb a tender, rich texture.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that lifts the cake.
The step that matters
Mixing in the carbonate of soda. Soda must be evenly distributed through the batter, or it creates pockets and uneven rising. Blending it with sugar and flour first helps it spread without clumping, and it should go in just before the batter is poured so its gas is not lost.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, cream, 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.
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 recipesThe 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.