Name: Velvet Cake
Ingredients: ½ pound (2 sticks) butter, softened; 1 pound pulverized sugar; 1 pound all-purpose flour; 4 large eggs; 1 teacup (8 ounces) cold water; ½ teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon cream of tartar; Flavoring to taste (e.g., vanilla, almond extract); Optional: fruit and spices for flavor

Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Velvet Cake

Ingredients

½ pound (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 pound pulverized sugar
1 pound all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 teacup (8 ounces) cold water
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Flavoring to taste (e.g., vanilla, almond extract)
Optional: fruit and spices for flavor

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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the cold water, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Gradually add the flour and mix until just combined.
Add flavoring to taste and mix well.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 1 hour.
If desired, add fruit and spices before baking or make a chocolate version by baking as a jelly cake.

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.

Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,961 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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: Creams with the sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, fine texture and richness.
Eggs: Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Cream of tartar: Acidifies the batter, helping the baking soda react and supporting a tender crumb.
Pulverized sugar: Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a tender, fine crumb.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, egg, cream, almond):

Vanillathe original
Raisinfits about as well
Coconutfits less well
Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, flour, egg, cream, almond. 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.