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Red Velvet Cake

A beautiful chocolate sponge with buttercream icing - perfect for a romantic evening

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Red Velvet Cake

Why it works: Flour and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 515 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Red Velvet Cake

Serves 12
Prep30 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1067Calories
45 gProtein
37 gFat
132 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Cheese1 oz (28g) cheddar113
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Beetrootnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Flour + beetroottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together515 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + yogurttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,333 recipes

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

  4. Yogurt + beetroottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Swap the beetroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, chocolate, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, egg, yogurt):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Sweet potatofits about as well
  3. Beetrootthe original
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, chocolate, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, egg, yogurt. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.