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 ↓
Layer 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
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat eggs until light and fluffy.
Make the batter
Add sweet milk, sugar, and melted butter; mix well.
Gradually add flour and Royal Baking powder, stirring until smooth.
Pour batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake
Bake 25–30 minutes or 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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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).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
- Beaten to trap air, giving the cake structure and a light, fluffy crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the gluten network and sets the structure of the cake as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moisture.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
- Royal baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes airy.
- Sweet milk
- Adds liquid that hydrates the flour and gives the batter its moisture.
The step that matters
Stirring in the flour and baking powder. Stirring until smooth is needed for an even batter, but overmixing once flour is added develops too much gluten, which can make the cake tough. Add the flour gradually and stop once the batter is smooth.
“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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