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 ↓
Raspberry Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Beat the yolks with the sugar until thoroughly mixed.
Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the flour mixture and the egg whites into the yolk and sugar mixture.
Pour the batter into a greased cake tin and bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
Once baked, turn the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Fill and ice
When cool, slice the cake in half.
Prepare butter icing flavored with a few raspberries, rubbed through a sieve, and spread it on one half of the cake.
Place the other half on top.
Sift 4 lb icing sugar into a bowl and mix with enough sieved raspberries to achieve a thick cream consistency.
Pour the raspberry icing over the center of the cake, allowing it to run over the sides.
Once the icing has set, decorate the top with raspberry butter icing using a piping bag.
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.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raspberry + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,308 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Whites trap air for lift; yolks add richness and structure to the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the sponge its structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps give a tender, fine crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise in the oven.
- Raspberry blancmange powder
- Adds raspberry flavour and colour, plus starch that softens the crumb.
The step that matters
Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Whisked egg whites hold the cake's air bubbles. Stirring vigorously or folding too long knocks out that air, so the cake bakes up flat and dense instead of light.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, butter):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, butter. 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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