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Dessert

Lemon Jelly Cake

A cake with a lemon jelly filling made from lemon juice, rind, sugar, corn starch, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Lemon Jelly Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the egg yolks and beat thoroughly.

  3. Stir in three-fourths of the milk gradually.

  4. Sift the baking powder and flour together several times.

  5. Add the sifted flour a handful at a time, stirring rapidly.

  6. Add the remaining milk and flour as needed for a good batter consistency.

  7. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the batter last.

Bake the layers

  1. Bake in layer cake pans at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Turn out the layers quickly as soon as the top touches the paper.

Make the filling

  1. Combine the lemon juice and grated rind in a double boiler, then pour in the boiling water.

  2. Mix the corn starch and sugar in a bowl.

  3. Beat in the egg.

  4. Add the mixture to the double boiler.

  5. Cook until clear and somewhat thick.

  6. Add the butter just before removing from heat.

Assemble and rest

  1. Spread the filling between the layers.

  2. Let it sit for 24 hours before serving.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and the whites lift the batter when beaten.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the layers to rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richness to the cake and filling.
Corn starch
Thickens the lemon filling as it heats with the liquid.
Lemon
Provides acidity and bright aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Cook the filling until clear and somewhat thick. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it is heated with liquid until the mixture turns clear. Stopping early leaves the filling thin and starchy-tasting.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, butter, egg, corn):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, butter, egg, corn. 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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