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Dessert

Angel Cake

A light, airy cake made from whipped egg whites, sugar, flour, almond extract, and baked at low temperature.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Angel Cake

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Angel Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Sift the sugar and flour together five times.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the cream of tartar and beat until very stiff.

  3. Gently fold in the sifted sugar and flour mixture without breaking the air cells.

  4. Add the almond extract and mix gently.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into a tin lined with oiled paper.

  2. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) for 40 to 50 minutes, increasing the heat slightly after 25 minutes.

  3. Do not jar the cake while baking.

  4. When done, invert the cake to cool.

  5. Cover with boiled frosting.

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.

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.

  1. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Flour and egg 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
Flour
Provides the light structure that holds the cake once the foam sets in baking.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip to a stiffer, more stable foam.

The step that matters

Folding in the flour and sugar mixture. Folding gently preserves the air cells whipped into the egg whites. Stirring or deflating the batter causes a dense, flat cake rather than a light, tall one.

“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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