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 ↓
Sour Cream Nut Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cake
Beat two eggs with 1 cup granulated sugar.
Add 1 cup rich sour cream, 2 teaspoons soda, and 1 cup sifted flour.
Bake the batter in two layers.
Make the filling and assemble
For the filling, boil 1 cup sugar in 2 tablespoons water until it hardens.
Add beaten whites of 2 eggs to the hot sugar syrup.
When cool, flavor with lemon extract.
Spread the filling over the cake and cover with chopped hickory nuts or English walnuts.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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.
-
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).
-
Sugar + eggtop 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
- Beaten eggs add structure and lift to the batter, and whites set into the filling.
- Sour cream (in the method)
- Adds moisture and tenderness to the cake crumb and a slight tang.
- Soda (in the method)
- Reacts with the sour cream's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, when boiled with water, forms the syrup that becomes the filling.
- Sifted flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together.
The step that matters
Boiling the filling sugar syrup. Sugar syrup must reach the right stage before it meets the egg whites; overcooked syrup becomes too hard, and underdone syrup leaves a runny filling. Pouring it slowly into beaten whites helps keep the filling smooth and fluffy.
“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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