Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Gold Cake
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the butter until creamy.
Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until well combined.
Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Combine the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda in another bowl.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk.
Alternately add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, starting with flour.
Alternately add the milk to the butter mixture, ending with flour.
Mix until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness, fat and structure that help bind and set the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so baking soda reacts properly and helps the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that lifts the cake.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms a smooth structure.
The step that matters
Mix until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form. Overmixing at this stage makes the cake tough and dense, so stop as soon as the batter is smooth.
“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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