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Dessert

Sally American Tea Cake

A light, buttery cake flavored with flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk, and leavening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sally American Tea Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix the flour, sugar, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

Make the batter

  1. Add the well-beaten eggs to the dry ingredients.

  2. Melt the butter in a small cup of milk and add to the mixture.

  3. Stir well for a few minutes until combined.

  4. Pour the batter into two well-buttered round cake tins.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until done, about 20-25 minutes.

  2. Cut open, butter, and serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so baking soda reacts and helps the cake rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to release gas that lifts the batter.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavour and helps the cake brown.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and contributes to browning and a tender crumb.

The step that matters

Stir the batter only until combined. Stirring for a long time develops gluten in the flour, which can make the cake tough. Mixing just until combined keeps the crumb tender while the leavening, activated by the cream of tartar and baking soda, still lifts the batter.

“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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