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Dessert

Sweet Strawberry Cake

A layered cake with strawberries and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sweet Strawberry Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  3. Add the eggs and mix well.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then stir into the mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into a deep tin plate and bake until golden.

Prepare the filling and topping

  1. In a bowl, mix the strawberries with 1 cup of sugar and mash slightly.

  2. Spread the mashed strawberries between the layers of cake.

  3. For the top layer, make a meringue by beating the egg white and adding powdered sugar.

  4. Spread the meringue on top and decorate with the largest strawberries.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, and help the batter set as it bakes.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the butter cream to a light, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour in the cake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Strawberries
Add moisture, sweetness and fruity flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Make the cake. Sifting the flour with the baking powder spreads the leavening evenly so the cake rises uniformly. Baking until golden, not just set, ensures the crumb is fully cooked and structurally firm enough to hold the filling.

“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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