Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
White Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites until very stiff.
Slowly add the sugar to the beaten egg whites.
Mix the cream of tartar into the flour.
Cream the flour mixture with the butter.
Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan.
Bake slowly until a toothpick inserted in the center 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a stiff foam, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Granulated sugar
- Added to the whipped whites, it stabilizes the foam and adds sweetness and tenderness.
- Butter
- Creamed with the flour, it adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- An acid that stabilizes the whipped egg whites and helps them hold their volume.
The step that matters
Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating the foam makes the cake dense and flat after it bakes.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, cream):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, cream. 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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