Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Raspberry Cake with Lattice Work
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of four eggs with four tablespoons of sugar until very light.
Add four tablespoons of flour and ½ teaspoon of baking powder, then fold in the beaten whites of the four eggs.
Pour the batter into a baking tin.
Bake and top
Bake in an oven according to directions.
When the cake is cold, spread well‑cooked raspberries on top.
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 + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Eggs
- Whipped yolks and whites give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb once baked.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps whip the yolks to a light, stable foam.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become lighter.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten whites. Folding gently keeps the air whipped into the whites. Stirring or deflating the batter causes it to lose volume, which leaves the cake dense.
“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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