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 ↓
Mountain Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Rub the butter into the flour.
Make the batter
Add the sugar and stir in the yolks of the eggs.
Moisten the mixture with the cream, dissolving the baking soda and cream of tartar in it.
Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the mixture.
Bake
Pour the batter into a prepared baking pan and bake for about 1 hour.
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.
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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 + 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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 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
- Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites add lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Butter
- Rubbed into the flour, it adds richness and tenderness by coating the flour particles.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the cake its tender texture and golden browning.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acts as an acid that reacts with baking soda to produce lift and stabilizes the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites must be whipped to a stiff froth and folded in gently. Overmixing deflates the air bubbles that provide lift, which can leave the cake dense.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, cream, egg. 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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