Why it works: Vanilla and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,301 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓
Angel Food Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift 1 cup flour 3 times.
Add 1 level teaspoon cream of tartar.
Add 1 cup granulated sugar.
Add 1 teaspoon salt to egg whites before beating.
Add 1 cup egg white.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Beat and fold
Beat egg whites until about half beaten, then add cream of tartar and vanilla extract.
Beat until fully beaten but not too stiff, then sift sugar in.
Beat with strong, vigorous, continuous strokes.
Add flour last, folding in with few strokes.
Bake
Put batter into pan at once, then into gas range.
Place pan on rack about 3 inches above bottom of oven.
Light both burners about 2 minutes before placing cake in oven.
Immediately on placing cake in oven, turn off front burner and reduce back burner to 1/3 capacity.
Bake cake for 1 hour.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Vanilla | 1 tsp extract (4ml) | 12 |
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.
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Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Vanilla and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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 (in the method)
- Whipped into a foam that traps air and lifts the cake as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilises the whipped egg white foam so it holds its volume.
- Flour (in the method)
- Sets during baking to give the cake its structure.
- Granulated sugar (in the method)
- Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the beaten egg white foam.
- Vanilla
- Adds aroma to the cake.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites to fully beaten but not too stiff. Under-beaten whites will not hold enough air to lift the cake, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and lose volume, so the foam collapses in the oven.
“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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