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 ↓
Fig 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.
Make the cake batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the milk.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake and top
Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
For the dressing, combine the chopped figs and sugar in a saucepan.
Add boiling water to the figs until they can be spread nicely on the cake.
Once the cake is cooled, spread the fig dressing on top.
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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Milk + figtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,026 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Sugar + spreadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together260 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + figtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,192 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
- Eggs
- Provide structure and richness as they set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Figs
- Add natural sweetness, moisture and flavor to the fig topping.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and mixing only until smooth keeps the batter from overdeveloping gluten, which would make the cake tough.
Swap the fig
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, spread):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figthe original
- Lemonfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, flour, spread. 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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