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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Crumble the butter into the flour.
Mix in the sugar, salt, and candied citron or orange rind.
Make the batter
In a separate bowl, whisk the cream and eggs together.
Combine the cream mixture with the dry ingredients to form a thick batter.
Sift the baking soda with an equal amount of sugar and flour, then mix it into the batter.
Butter the molds and fill them two-thirds full with the batter.
Bake and make rusks
Bake for about 45 minutes until golden.
For rusks, pull apart the cake while hot and return to the oven to crisp.
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
- Adds richness and tenderness by coating the flour and keeping the crumb soft.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as it bakes.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity works with the baking soda.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during baking to give the cake its structure.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Pull apart the cake while hot and return it to the oven to crisp. Rusks depend on drying out the crumb. Cutting or separating the cake while hot lets it release steam, and a second bake dries it further so it becomes crisp rather than soft.
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.