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Dessert

Sunshine Cake

A light, airy cake made with egg whites, yolks, sugar, flour, cream of tartar, salt, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Sunshine Cake

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 ↓

Sunshine Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Sift and measure the sugar and flour, then set aside.

  3. Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a mixing bowl and the yolks in a small bowl.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks until very frothy.

  2. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy.

  3. Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites and whip until very stiff.

  4. Gradually add the sugar to the egg whites, beating well after each addition.

  5. Fold in the beaten yolks.

  6. Fold in the flour gently.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a prepared pan.

  2. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air that lifts and gives the cake its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Beaten until frothy, they add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Granulated sugar
Whipped into the egg whites, it stabilises the foam and sweetens the cake.
Flour
Folded in last, it provides the set structure that holds the cake's airy crumb.
Cream of tartar
An acid that stabilises the whipped egg whites, helping them hold stiff peaks.

The step that matters

Folding in the flour and yolks. Over-mixing or deflating the whipped whites releases the air that makes the cake rise. Fold gently and quickly so the batter keeps its volume and the cake bakes up light rather than dense.

“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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