Why it works: Flour and butter 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 ↓
Jelly Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Sift three quarters of a pound of flour.
Stir a pound of butter and a pound of powdered white sugar to a cream.
Mix in half a tea-cup of rose water, a grated nutmeg, and a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon.
Beat ten eggs very light.
Add the eggs gradually to the mixture, alternately with the flour, stirring the whole very hard.
Bake the cakes
Put the griddle into the oven of a stove, and when it is quite hot, grease it with fresh butter tied in a clean rag.
Set a greased tin cake-ring (about the size of a large dinner plate) on the griddle.
Dip out two and a half large table-spoonfuls of the batter and put it within the tin ring.
Bake about five minutes (or a little longer) without turning it.
When done, take it carefully off and place it on a large dish to cool.
Wipe the griddle, grease it afresh, and put on another cake; proceed thus till all the batter is baked.
Assemble and finish
When the cakes are cool, spread every one thickly with grape jelly, peach marmalade, or other smooth, thick sweetmeat.
Lay the cakes smoothly one on another, each having a layer of jelly or marmalade between.
Grate loaf-sugar over the top cake, or ice it smoothly, marking the icing with cross lines of coloured sugar-sand meeting at the centre.
If icing, add a few drops of essence of lemon to the icing.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour and butter 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
- Eggs
- Beaten in gradually to build the batter's structure and lift as they set.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cakes a tender, rich crumb.
- Powdered white sugar
- Creams with butter and adds sweetness and a fine, soft texture.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the thin cakes together once baked.
- Grape jelly or peach marmalade (in the method)
- Adds sweetness and moisture between the layers and binds the stacked cakes.
The step that matters
Baking each cake without turning it. A thin batter set in a hot greased ring cooks through from below; turning it early can tear or collapse the delicate layer before its structure has set.
“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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