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Dessert

Cup Cakes

Cupcakes are small cakes baked in individual tins, made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and optional flavorings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cup Cakes

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and mix well.

  3. Stir in the milk and flavoring.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mixing until just combined.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  7. If desired, add currants, raisins, citron, almonds, or lemon extract.

  8. Spoon the batter into buttered gem pans or drop teaspoonfuls onto buttered flat tins.

Bake

  1. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the batter bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps create a soft, light texture when creamed with butter.
Eggs
Add structure and richness; beaten whites trapped in the batter help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that lifts the cupcakes.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that works with baking soda to leaven the batter and stabilise it.

The step that matters

Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mix only until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes the cupcakes tough and dense instead of tender.

Swap the currant

The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg, cream, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

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

“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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