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Dessert

Sugae Cake

A cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, and ammonia.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Sugae 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Separate the egg whites and yolks, then beat them separately.

Make the batter

  1. Combine the beaten whites and yolks, and beat them well together.

  2. Add the sifted white sugar, melted butter, and pulverized ammonia to the egg mixture.

  3. Mix until well combined and pour into a prepared baking pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help bind the crumb.
White sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, tenderness and a moist texture.
Ammonia
Acts as a leavening agent that lifts the batter as it bakes, giving a lighter crumb.

The step that matters

Beating the whites separately. Whites beaten to a stable foam trap air that lifts the batter. Any trace of yolk or grease in the whites can stop them from foaming, leaving a dense cake.

“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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