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 ↓
French Cream 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 batter
In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar, eggs, and cold water. Beat until light and fluffy.
Gradually add flour and baking powder, mixing until well combined.
Divide the batter evenly between two jelly cake pans.
Bake and finish
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
Once baked, split each cake in half and turn the cut side up, except for the top layer, which should be sprinkled with fine sugar.
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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Egg + flourtop 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).
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
- Whisked with sugar, they trap air and give the cake its light, fluffy structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the batter into the cake's crumb structure.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and turn lighter in texture.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and dissolves easily, giving a fine, tender crumb.
The step that matters
Beat the eggs, sugar and water until light and fluffy. Air whipped into the eggs and sugar is what lifts the batter during baking. If it is under-beaten, the cakes will be dense and flat, so the mixture should look pale and airy before flour is added.
“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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