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Dessert

Lady Cake

A light, almond-flavored cake made with flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg whites, almond extract, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lady Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the milk and mix thoroughly.

  3. Beat the egg whites until very stiff, then fold in a little at a time.

  4. Add the almond extract.

  5. Sift the flour and baking powder together at least four times.

Bake and finish

  1. Grease a cake mold and line it with greased parchment paper.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours.

  3. Once cooled, ice and decorate as desired.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (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
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and traps air when creamed with sugar.
Eggs whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the batter and help it rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become airy.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiff egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that lightens the batter. Adding them all at once or stirring vigorously deflates them, which leads to a dense cake. Fold gently and add them a little at a time.

“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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