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Dessert

Ice Cream Cake

A layered cake made from beaten egg whites, sugar, flour, corn starch, milk, and baking powder, topped with a vanilla frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In another bowl, mix sugar, flour, corn starch, milk, and baking powder until smooth.

  4. Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture until combined.

  5. Divide the batter into three layers and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make the frosting

  1. For the frosting, boil the sugar and boiling water until it reaches a stringy consistency.

  2. Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites, stirring until cool.

  3. Add vanilla extract and a pinch of citric acid if desired.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Corn starch
Softens the crumb, giving a more tender texture than flour alone.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the batter rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Milk
Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms a smooth mixture.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the batter. Whipped egg whites hold the air that makes the cake light. Stirring vigorously or overmixing knocks out that air, so the cake bakes up dense. Fold gently, just until combined.

“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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