Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the batter
Beat the sugar and eggs together until frothy.
Pour in the sweet cream and mix well.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
Add lemon flavoring to taste.
Bake
Pour the batter into shallow pans.
Bake for 30 minutes.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (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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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Beaten with sugar to trap air and give the cake structure as they set.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake batter as its proteins set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic partner to the baking soda, helping produce gas for lift and a tender crumb.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the batter, softening the crumb.
The step that matters
Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Once the leavening meets liquid, gas starts forming quickly, so the batter should be mixed gently and baked promptly. Overmixing develops gluten and can make the cake tough and dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cream, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cream, flour. 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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