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 ↓
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold the egg whites into the dry ingredients.
Add the sweet milk or Royal Baking Powder and mix until smooth.
Bake
Pour the batter into thin cake pans and bake until golden brown.
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.
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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 + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 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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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Whipped whites trap air, giving the cake lift and a light, airy crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the beaten egg whites so they hold their peaks.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acidic ingredients to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the batter.
The step that matters
Fold the egg whites gently. Egg whites are full of trapped air. Stirring or beating them into the batter knocks that air out, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Fold slowly with a spatula to keep the batter light.
“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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