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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Cream butter in a large bowl.
Gradually add sugar, mixing well.
Add milk little by little until fully incorporated.
Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form.
Alternately add beaten egg whites and flour to the butter mixture, mixing until combined.
Add desired flavoring and mix well.
Bake
Pour batter into a greased cake pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Creams with sugar to trap air and add tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed with butter, aiding a tender texture.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake's crumb as the batter bakes.
- Egg whites
- Beaten to stiff peaks, they add lift and help set the structure of the cake.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter to make the cake rise.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour to form the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air only when beaten to stiff peaks, and alternating them with flour while mixing gently keeps that air in the batter. Overmixing deflates the foam and produces a dense, tougher cake.
“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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