Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Lemon 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.
Make the cake batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the creamed mixture.
Bake and make the jelly
Pour the batter into greased cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes.
For the jelly, combine 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, grated lemon rind, and lemon juice in a saucepan. Boil until thick, stirring constantly.
Assemble
Once the cakes are cool, layer them with the lemon jelly in between.
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 + 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).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter set and bind during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and become light.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and flavour in the cake and the lemon jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, light texture when creamed with butter.
The step that matters
Boil the lemon jelly until thick, stirring constantly. Sugar, butter and lemon juice thicken as they boil and concentrate; stirring prevents scorching on the base of the pan and keeps the jelly smooth.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, 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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