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Dessert

Roll Jelly Cake

A baked cake rolled with jelly, dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roll Jelly Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and sweet milk.

  3. Whip the egg whites until frothy and fold them into the yolk mixture.

  4. Add the baking powder and flour, mixing until combined.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake until golden.

Roll and finish

  1. While hot, remove the cake from the pan and place it on a cloth dampened with cold water.

  2. Spread jelly over the cake and roll it up quickly.

  3. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 give the sponge its lift and airy structure, while yolks add richness and set the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps trap air during beating, giving a tender, stable crumb.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten framework that sets the cake's structure as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to make the sponge rise and stay light.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and moisture, and a fruity flavour contrast inside the rolled cake.

The step that matters

Rolling the cake while hot. A warm sponge is flexible; once it cools the starch sets and the cake cracks when rolled. Rolling it quickly over a damp cloth keeps the surface supple and prevents sticking and cracking.

“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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