Gold Cake

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

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together78,219 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

Egg yolks

Add richness, colour and structure to the batter.

Butter

Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.

Sugar

Sweetens the cake and helps trap air when creamed with butter.

Baking soda

Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.

Flour

Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.

Cream of tartar

Acts as an acid that works with the baking soda and helps stabilise the batter.

The step that matters

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, milk, flour, cream):

1. Vanillafits better
2. Raisinfits better
3. Coconutfits better
4. Lemonthe original

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