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Dessert

Genoese Pastry

A light, frothy cake made with eggs, sugar, butter, and flour, baked and iced.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Genoese Pastry

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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs and sugar together over hot water until light and frothy.

  2. Clarify the butter and ensure it is at the same temperature as the egg and sugar mixture.

  3. Stir in the clarified butter lightly.

  4. Fold in the sifted flour gently.

  5. Turn the mixture into a prepared tin.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes.

  2. When cold, split the cake and spread with chocolate, coffee, or vanilla butter icing; place the other half on top.

  3. Place on a sugared plate, sprinkle a little sugar on top, cover with a plate, and press lightly.

  4. Pour over water icing and decorate as desired.

  5. For small cakes, bake in a large shallow tin and cut as desired.

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.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Whipped with sugar to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the whipped egg foam.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour; clarified so it blends smoothly into the batter.
Flour
Sets the cake's structure as it bakes, holding the air from the eggs.

The step that matters

Stir in the clarified butter lightly. Fat deflates the whipped egg foam, so the butter must be at the same temperature as the batter and stirred gently to keep the cake light.

“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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