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 ↓
Puff 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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, eggs, cold water, baking powder, and salt until smooth.
Pour the batter into sponge cake pans.
Bake
Bake until golden brown.
Make the custard
Combine 1 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, 1 egg, and a pinch of salt in a saucepan.
Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly.
Assemble
Once the cakes are baked, split them open and fill with the custard mixture.
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
- Add structure and moisture, and set the batter as it bakes.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, helping the cakes rise.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cakes and helps them brown as they bake.
The step that matters
Cook the custard until thickened, stirring constantly. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, and its starch granules swell and set into a smooth gel. Stirring constantly spreads the heat evenly, preventing scorching at the base of the pan and lumps from forming.
“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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