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 ↓
Jam 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the milk, cream of tartar, baking soda, and eggs; mix well.
Gradually add the flour and stir until combined.
Pour the batter into small tins and bake until done.
Fill and finish
Once baked, cut out a piece from the top of each cake.
Fill the cavity with jam or jelly, then replace the cut‑out piece.
Ice the cakes as desired.
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.
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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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb as it bakes.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour, and helps trap air when creamed with sugar.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cakes rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidic ingredient that reacts with the baking soda to leaven the batter.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into small tins and bake until done. The leavening reaction between baking soda and cream of tartar starts once wet and dry ingredients combine, so the batter should go into the tins and into the oven promptly. Baking until set but not dry keeps the crumb tender and gives room for the jam filling later.
“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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