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Dessert

Burnt Sugar Cake

A cake made with burnt sugar, flour, eggs, butter, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Burnt Sugar Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the burnt sugar

  1. Burn 1 cup sugar and add 1 cup water, boiling for a few minutes.

  2. Add 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 cup water or milk.

Make the batter

  1. Add 3 tablespoons butter and 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder.

  2. Add yolks of 3 eggs.

  3. Add whites of 2 eggs and 2 or 3 tablespoons burnt sugar.

  4. Add 2 1/4 cups flour.

  5. Mix sugar, butter, and yolks together; then add whites of eggs, 1/2 of the water or milk, and burnt sugar. Then add the other half of water or milk with the baking powder dissolved in it, and the flour. Mix well and bake in 3 layers.

Finish

  1. Cook until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water, then add the beaten white of egg and beat well.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

684Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
108 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Hamilton, Ohio. First Methodist Episcopal church. [from old catalog]. 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. 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.

  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. Flour + eggtop 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

Sugar
Burnt sugar adds colour and caramel flavour, while granulated sugar adds sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and whites help the batter set with structure.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake together.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the cake rise.
Water or milk
Adds moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar to a soft ball. The sugar must reach the soft-ball stage before the beaten egg white goes in. Undercooked sugar leaves the mixture runny, while overcooked sugar turns firm and grainy, changing the final texture.

“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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