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Dessert

R, Feather Cake

A light, thin batter cake baked at 400°F until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

R, Feather Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg, sugar, and butter until creamy.

  2. Add the milk and mix well.

  3. Combine the cream of tartar with the flour.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add to the mixture.

  5. Gradually add flour until you achieve a thin batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until golden.

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. Milk + buttertop 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the crust brown as the cake bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and a richer flavor.
Cream of tartar
Acid that reacts with baking soda to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
Baking soda
Base that reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide for lift.
Milk
Provides liquid that hydrates the flour and dissolves the baking soda.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add to the mixture. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed in promptly so it reacts with the cream of tartar while the batter is still wet. Lumps or delay let gas escape before baking, weakening the rise.

“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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