Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Sunshine Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Sift the flour with the cream of tartar and salt six times.
Sift the sugar and set it aside.
Separate the eggs.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks until thick and creamy, then mix in the lemon juice and flavoring.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the sugar.
Fold the yolk mixture into the egg whites, then sift in the flour and fold slowly.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into an ungreased cake tin and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40 to 45 minutes.
When done, invert the tin to cool.
For the frosting, mix ½ cup sugar with 1 teaspoon lemon or orange extract until it reaches frosting consistency.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the crumb.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the beaten egg whites so they hold their volume.
The step that matters
Folding the yolk mixture and flour into the whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating the batter causes a dense, flat cake.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, cream):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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