Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Mocha Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
In a bowl, beat together the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, and coffee for 5 minutes.
Gently fold in the sifted flour and the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Pour the batter into a small square layer cake pan.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.
Let cool slightly, then turn out of the pan and cut in half crosswise.
Spread half of the Mocha Cream filling on the cut side, then reassemble the cake.
Spread the remaining filling on top, dust with sugar, and serve fresh.
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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Vanilla + coffeetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,391 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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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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Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 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).
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
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, coffee, flour, cream):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Strawberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, coffee, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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