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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

A layered cake with pink and dark batter, finished with a sugar icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ribbon 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.

Make the pink batter

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the whites of 6 eggs until stiff.

  3. Gradually add 1½ cups sugar and continue beating.

  4. Mix in ½ cup butter, ½ cup sweet milk, 2 cups flour, and 2 teaspoons baking powder.

  5. Color half of the batter with 1 drop of cochineal.

Make the dark batter

  1. In another bowl, beat the yolks of 6 eggs.

  2. Add 1½ cups sugar, ½ cup butter, ½ cup sweet milk, 2½ cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and grated chocolate.

  3. Flavor both batters with vanilla.

Bake and make the icing

  1. Pour the pink batter into one layer.

  2. Pour the dark batter into another layer.

  3. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  4. For the icing, boil 2 cups sugar and ¼ cup water until thick.

  5. Pour the icing over the whites of 4 eggs.

  6. Beat until cool.

  7. Flavor with vanilla.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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
Whites beaten to stiff foam give the cake its light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavor in the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas as it heats, helping the batter rise into a lighter cake.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps stabilize the beaten egg whites.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and helps bind the batter into a smooth, tender crumb.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Stiff whites trap air that leavens the batter. Under-beaten whites produce a dense cake, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy before folding.

“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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