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Dessert

Pansy Cake

A layered cake with yellow, brown, white, and red layers, each flavored with different extracts and colored with food dyes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Pansy 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 batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together ⅔ cup butter and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add ½ cup milk and 5 beaten egg yolks, mixing well.

  4. Sift 1 teaspoon baking powder with 2 cups flour and fold into the mixture.

  5. Divide the batter in half. Flavor one half with ½ teaspoon orange water for the yellow layer.

  6. Flavor the other half with ½ teaspoon vanilla and enough chocolate to achieve a good brown color.

  7. Pour each batter into jelly cake pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  8. For the white layer, cream together ½ cup butter and 1½ cups sugar.

  9. Add ½ cup milk and 5 beaten egg whites, mixing well.

  10. Sift 1 teaspoon baking powder with 2 cups flour and fold into the mixture.

  11. Divide the batter in half. Flavor one half with ½ teaspoon rose water for the white layer.

  12. Flavor the other half with ½ teaspoon lemon extract and red food coloring for the red layer.

  13. Bake the white and red layers in jelly cake pans until done.

Assemble

  1. Once all layers are baked, stack them in the order: brown, white, red, yellow.

  2. Spread jelly or frosting between each layer and on top.

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 + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness, fat and emulsifying power that help bind the batter and deepen color.
Egg whites
Add lift and a light, airy structure to the white layer.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so each layer rises.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.

The step that matters

Baking the layers until done. Over-baking dries the thin jelly-cake layers, while under-baking leaves a dense, gummy center. Testing with a toothpick shows when the structure has set.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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