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Baking

Cup Cake

A sweet baked cake made with butter, milk, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cup Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a large bowl.

  2. Gradually add the sugar while beating constantly.

  3. Separate the eggs and beat the yolks until light.

  4. Add the yolks to the butter and sugar mixture and beat again.

  5. Stir in the milk.

  6. Sift in the flour and beat until perfectly smooth.

  7. Add the flavoring.

  8. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

  9. Gently fold in the egg whites and baking powder until well mixed.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 and give the cupcake a tender, rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps hold air when creamed with butter.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and structure; whites, beaten stiff, add lift and airiness.
Flour
Forms the structure that sets the crumb as the cupcake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing it to rise during baking.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter to a pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiffly beaten whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Overmixing or deflating them while folding makes the cupcake dense and heavy, so fold gently until just combined.

“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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