Pound cake. Equal weights of all four — 225 g each — and nothing else. Skip the eggs and you have shortbread (300 g flour, 200 g butter, 100 g sugar); skip the flour and butter and the eggs and sugar alone make meringues. Add one more ingredient and the same cupboard reaches 5 more bakes.
These need nothing beyond all-purpose (plain) flour, butter, granulated sugar, eggs — plus salt and water, which we assume every kitchen has. Formulas are given in grams because a scooped cup of flour can vary by 30%; here's why that matters.
The purest three-ingredient bake. Rub cold butter into flour and sugar, press into a tin, prick, and bake low until pale gold.
Gram formula: 3:2:1 by weight — 300 g flour, 200 g butter, 100 g sugar. Bake at 160°C / 325°F for 35–40 min.
Two ingredients, one rule: 50 g of sugar per egg white, added a spoon at a time once the whites hold soft peaks.
Gram formula: 1 egg white (33 g) : 50 g sugar. Bake at 100°C / 210°F for 90 min, then cool in the oven.
Equal weights of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour — the recipe is in the name. Creaming well is the only technique.
Gram formula: 225 g each of butter, sugar, eggs (4–5), and flour. Bake at 170°C / 340°F for 55–65 min.
Baking powder is the highest-value addition — it alone turns the four staples into sugar cookies and scones. Cocoa gets you brownies; milk gets you crêpes and pancakes.
Peanut butter is the flour, the fat, and the flavour. Crisp edges, fudgy middles, ten minutes in the oven.
Gram formula: 250 g peanut butter, 200 g sugar, 1 egg. Bake at 180°C / 350°F for 10–12 min.
Plus: Peanut butter
Full gram-first recipe →A thin batter, a hot pan, a swirl. Rest the batter 30 minutes so the flour hydrates and the crêpes don't tear.
Gram formula: 125 g flour, 2 eggs, 300 g milk, 25 g melted butter. Rest 30 min, cook in a lightly buttered pan.
Plus: Milk
Melted chocolate and butter, whisked eggs and sugar, nothing else. Dense, dark, and gluten-free by default.
Gram formula: 225 g chocolate, 170 g butter, 4 eggs, 150 g sugar. Bake at 160°C / 325°F for 25–30 min; it will still wobble.
Plus: Chocolate chips
Cream butter and sugar, beat in the egg, fold in flour and baking powder. Roll and cut, or scoop and press.
Gram formula: 280 g flour, 170 g butter, 200 g sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp baking powder. Bake at 180°C / 350°F for 10–12 min.
Plus: Baking powder
Cocoa-powder brownies need no melted chocolate. Melt the butter, whisk in sugar and cocoa, then eggs, then just enough flour.
Gram formula: 140 g butter, 250 g sugar, 65 g cocoa, 2 eggs, 65 g flour. Bake at 170°C / 340°F for 22–25 min.
Plus: Cocoa powder
Tick exactly what you have and get the list re-sorted for your kitchen, with substitutes for whatever's missing.
Open the What Can I Bake? tool →Shortbread (no eggs needed), meringues (no flour or butter needed), and a true pound cake — equal weights of all four, 225 g each — which needs nothing else but a pinch of salt. Pound cake is the richest thing four ingredients can become.
1:1:1:1 by weight — traditionally a pound each of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour. For a standard loaf tin use 225 g of each (that's four to five large eggs). Cream the butter and sugar thoroughly, beat in the eggs one at a time, fold in the flour, and bake at 170°C / 340°F for about an hour.
Not for shortbread, which is meant to be dense and sandy. For sugar cookies that rise and soften, yes — a teaspoon of baking powder per 280 g of flour. If you have baking soda instead, use a third as much and add something acidic like a spoon of yogurt or a squeeze of lemon.