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Dessert

Roll Jelly Cake

A sponge cake rolled with jelly after baking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Roll Jelly 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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the yolks of the eggs in a bowl until light.

  3. Gradually add the sugar, alternating with the heavy cream and flour.

  4. Sift the baking powder and salt with the flour.

  5. Add the sifted baking powder, salt, and flour to the mixture.

  6. Fold in the grated rind of half a lemon and the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake and roll

  1. Spread the batter very thinly on shallow pans.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until lightly golden.

  3. While warm, spread the cake with jelly.

  4. Roll the cake up.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Whipped whites trap air and give the sponge its light, airy structure.
All-purpose flour
Its proteins and starch form the batter's main structure once baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and moist.
Heavy cream
Adds moisture and richness to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. The air in beaten whites gives the sponge its lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a flatter, denser cake that may crack when rolled.

“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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