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Dessert

White Lady Cake

A light cake made with powdered sugar, butter, egg whites, flour, and rose or vanilla flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Lady 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.

Make the batter

  1. Rub the powdered sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.

  2. Beat the egg whites until foamy.

  3. Add the beaten egg whites to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well.

  4. Flavor the mixture with rose or vanilla.

  5. Add the flour.

  6. If a very light cake is desired, add a little baking powder.

Bake

  1. Grease and line the baking molds with paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Egg whites
Beaten egg whites trap air, giving the cake lightness and a open, airy crumb.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds richness and a tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Creams with butter and adds sweetness while keeping the crumb fine and tender.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to make the cake rise more lightly.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg whites. Egg whites must be beaten until foamy and folded in gently so the air they hold is not lost. Overmixing or deflating them leads to a denser cake.

“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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