Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Jelly Cake Roll
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 batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the eggs well.
Add the sugar to the eggs and mix until combined.
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Add the sifted flour mixture to the egg mixture along with the lemon extract.
Line a bread pan with parchment paper.
Pour the batter into the lined pan.
Bake until golden.
Roll and ice
Remove the cake from the pan and let it cool slightly.
Spread jelly over the cooled cake.
Roll the cake up tightly.
Beat one egg with the powdered sugar and mix in the jelly.
Spread the icing over the rolled cake.
Serve with whipped cream.
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.
-
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour 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
- Beaten eggs trap air and build the structure that holds the sponge together.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten framework that sets the cake's crumb as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and turn light.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep it tender and moist.
- Powdered sugar
- Dissolves into the egg icing to give a sweet, smooth coating.
The step that matters
Roll the cake up tightly. The cake must be rolled while still slightly warm and pliable; if it cools fully it cracks when rolled. Spreading jelly on the cooled cake is the other sensitive point, since it is easy to tear the sponge.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour, cream):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour, cream. 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.
More jelly roll recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.