Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓
Jelly Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Beat the butter, sugar, and egg yolks until light.
Add the milk and some of the flour.
Dissolve the baking soda in the milk, then add the stiffly beaten egg whites.
Fold in the remaining flour and cream of tartar, sifted four times.
Finally, add the vanilla extract.
Bake and fill
Bake in jelly tins at 400°F (200°C).
Spread layers with your choice of jelly.
Ice
Ice the top and sides with the beaten egg whites and confectioners' sugar, flavored with the same extract as the cake.
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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Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,943 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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
- Eggs
- Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the crumb.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a light, tender crumb.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with acid in the batter to release gas, helping the cake rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that stabilizes beaten egg whites and helps the batter rise and stay light.
The step that matters
Add the stiffly beaten egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air bubbles that give the cake its lift. Stirring or mixing too hard deflates them, leaving a denser, flatter 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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