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Dessert

Diet Bread Cake

A light cake made from eggs, sugar, flour, and water, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Diet Bread Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

  1. Whisk together 6 eggs and 6 egg yolks in a deep bowl until combined.

  2. Combine 1 pound loaf sugar and ½ cup water in a saucepan. Heat the mixture while stirring until nearly boiling.

  3. Gradually pour the hot sugar mixture over the eggs while whisking continuously until cool.

  4. Gently fold in 1 pound fine dry flour until just combined.

Bake

  1. Line baking tins with parchment paper, allowing it to rise an inch above the edges.

  2. Pour the batter into the prepared tins.

  3. Sift loaf sugar on top.

  4. Bake in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) until firm on top.

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 eggs and yolks provide structure and richness as the batter sets in the oven.
Egg yolks
Extra yolks add richness, moisture and a tender crumb to the cake.
Loaf sugar
Sugar sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.
Fine dry flour
Flour gives the batter its structure as it sets during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the hot sugar syrup to the eggs. Pour the hot sugar mixture slowly while whisking constantly. Pouring too fast or without whisking can scramble the eggs and leave the batter lumpy and uneven.

“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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