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Dessert

Gilt Edge Cake

A cake made with egg whites, yolks, sugar, flour, and cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Gilt Edge Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until foamy, then add cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating well after each addition.

  3. Add powdered sugar in the same manner.

  4. Stir in the egg yolks until well mixed.

  5. Add flour and beat for 15 seconds.

Bake

  1. Pour batter into cake tins, filling them only half full.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  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. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so the foam holds its shape longer.
Granulated sugar
Added gradually to the whites, it helps stabilize the foam and adds sweetness.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and a fine texture to the batter.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture and fat, and help bind the batter.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cake its set structure.

The step that matters

Folding in the flour. Beating the flour in too vigorously can knock air out of the whipped whites and develop gluten, leaving a dense cake. Keep the mixing brief, as the record specifies 15 seconds.

“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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