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Dessert

Bisque Cake

A sweet cake made with powdered sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg whites, baking powder, vanilla, egg yolks, hickory nuts, and powdered sugar icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Bisque Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the powdered sugar and butter until smooth.

  2. Add the milk and mix well.

  3. Slowly stir in the sifted flour.

  4. Froth the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Gently fold in the baking powder without stirring the dough.

  6. Add the egg whites last, folding them in lightly.

  7. Add a small amount of vanilla extract for flavor.

Bake the layers

  1. Divide the batter into three layers.

  2. Bake the layers until golden.

Make the icing and finish

  1. Beat the egg yolks for the icing.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar to the yolks until stiff.

  3. Stir in the finely chopped hickory nuts.

  4. Add a little vanilla extract to the icing.

  5. Ice each layer of the cake and the top.

  6. Place the iced cake in the oven for a few seconds to dry.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to add richness and a tender crumb.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks to lighten the batter and give it structure.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Egg yolks
Beaten into the icing to add richness and help it set smoothly.
Hickory nut kernels
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the icing.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites trap air that makes the cake light. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, so they should be folded in gently and quickly.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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