Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Cream 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).
Sift the baking powder and baking soda with the flour three times before adding.
Make and bake the batter
In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until well combined.
Gradually stir in the sweet cream and flour alternately.
Pour the batter into layers in a cake pan and bake until golden.
Finish
Once cooled, layer with jelly or your choice of filling.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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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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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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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
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Sweet cream
- Adds moisture and richness, giving the crumb a tender texture.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter to help the cake rise and brown.
The step that matters
Sifting the leavening with the flour. Baking powder and baking soda must be evenly distributed through the flour so the cake rises uniformly without pockets of bitterness or uneven holes. Sifting also aerates the flour and breaks up lumps that would otherwise stay in the batter.
“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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