Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Mocha Corn Flour Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Grease a round shallow cake tin with clarified butter.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Beat the yolks with the castor sugar for 10 minutes.
Mix the baking powder with the corn flour and gradually stir it into the yolk and sugar mixture.
Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whip them to stiff peaks.
Gently fold the whipped whites into the batter.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 25 minutes.
Once baked, turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make and apply the icing
For the icing, sift the icing sugar to remove lumps.
Beat the butter until creamy, then gradually add the icing sugar and mix until smooth.
Stir in the essence of coffee.
Once the cake is cool, level the top and coat the sides with icing using a palette knife dipped in hot water for a smooth finish.
Ice the top of the cake in the same manner and use any remaining icing to decorate as desired.
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Corn + coffeetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together247 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Whipped whites trap air and yolks enrich the batter, giving the cake its light structure.
- Brown corn flour
- Provides the main body of the cake, setting as it bakes.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks become thick and pale when beaten.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Fresh butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the icing.
- Essence of coffee
- Adds the mocha flavour and aroma to the icing.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whites; stirring or deflating them makes the cake dense and flat instead of light.
“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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