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 ↓
Princess 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).
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
In another bowl, cream the butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder to the butter mixture, alternating with the skim milk.
Gently fold in the beaten egg whites and rose flavoring.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake for 1 to 1.5 hours, or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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 + 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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lightens the cake's texture.
- Unsalted butter
- Creamed with sugar to create tenderness and a rich, fine crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps give a light texture.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles from the whipped whites intact. Stirring vigorously would deflate them, leading to a denser, less risen 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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