Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Rolled Jelly 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until well combined.
Add the flour, water, and baking powder, and mix until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased baking sheet and spread evenly.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.
Fill and roll
Remove from the oven, spread jelly quickly over the cake, and roll it up while hot.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour 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
- Whisked with sugar to trap air, giving the sponge its light structure.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the beaten eggs hold their foam.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and stays tender.
- Jelly
- Adds sweetness and fruit flavour to the filling inside the rolled cake.
The step that matters
Roll the cake while hot. A freshly baked sponge is flexible when warm. If it cools, it becomes brittle and is likely to crack when rolled around the jelly.
“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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