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
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately in a bowl.
Make the batter
Mix the sugar and egg yolks until creamy.
Sift the flour, remove 1 tablespoon, and replace it with corn starch.
Combine the flour mixture with the sugar and egg yolk mixture.
Add baking soda and cream of tartar, then fold in the beaten egg whites.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25–30 minutes.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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
- Egg whites, beaten separately, provide air and structure that lift the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure once it sets in the oven.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps tenderise the crumb while creaming with the yolks.
- Corn starch
- Replaces part of the flour, giving a more tender, lighter crumb.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg whites, stabilising them so they hold their foam.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that helps it rise.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold the batter's air. Stirring them in vigorously or too long knocks air out, leaving a dense cake. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.
“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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