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Dessert

Kentucky Silver Cake

A light, airy cake made with egg whites, powdered sugar, flour, butter, sweet milk, and almond flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Kentucky Silver 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. 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 the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff peaks form.

  3. Cream together the butter and powdered sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy.

  4. Gradually add the flour to the butter mixture, mixing well.

  5. Combine the cream of tartar and baking soda with the sweet milk in a small bowl, then add to the batter.

  6. Mix until just combined, then add almond flavoring and a pinch of salt.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25–30 minutes or until 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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar to hold air and add tenderness and richness.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the whipped egg whites and works with baking soda to lift the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine, tender crumb.

The step that matters

Mix until just combined. Once the flour is in, overmixing develops gluten and makes the cake tough and dense, and it can deflate the air trapped in the whipped whites.

“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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