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 ↓
Chocolate 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour with baking powder.
Add the flour and sweet milk to the butter mixture alternately, starting and ending with flour.
Fold in egg whites and bake
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.
Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Make and spread the frosting
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gradually add powdered sugar and grated chocolate until thick.
Spread the frosting between the layers of the cake.
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 + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,128 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts and lightens the cake.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add fat for a tender crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise.
- Granulated sugar
- Creams with butter to aerate the batter and adds sweetness and tenderness.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
The step that matters
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. The whipped egg white foam is what makes the cake light. Stirring vigorously or folding roughly deflates the air bubbles, leaving a denser, heavier cake.
“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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