Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓
Maple Sugar 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the milk and mix until combined.
Gradually add the flour and baking powder, mixing until smooth.
Pour the batter into thin layers in prepared cake pans.
Bake and fill
Bake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
For the filling, boil the maple sugar and 1 cup of milk for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat, beat until smooth and light, then spread between the layers.
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 + milktop 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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Flour + milktop 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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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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a fine, tender texture when creamed with butter.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as the batter sets in the oven.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the oven, helping the cake rise and become airy.
- Maple sugar
- Provides the maple flavour and sweetness of the cake and its filling.
The step that matters
Beating the filling after boiling. The boiled maple sugar and milk mixture must be beaten as it cools so it becomes smooth and light rather than grainy or hard. Beating encourages fine sugar crystals to form, which gives a creamy, spreadable texture.
“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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