Name: White Cake
Ingredients: ½ cup butter; 1 cup sugar; 1 to 1½ cups milk; 2¼ cups flour; 4 teaspoons baking powder; 4 egg whites; Flavoring to taste

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 ↓

White Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the milk gradually, mixing well.
Sift the flour and baking powder together, then add to the mixture.
Fold in the egg whites and flavoring gently.
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

Bake

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for about 40 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb and flavor.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture when creamed with butter.
Milk: Provides moisture that hydrates the flour and forms the batter.
Flour: Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Egg whites: Add structure and lift when folded in, helping the cake rise and set.