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Dessert

Peach Cakes

A light cake made from beaten eggs, powdered sugar, flour, topped with peach jam and icing, colored with cochineal water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Peach Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs separately, whipping the whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Mix the beaten yolks with the powdered sugar and beat together for 15 minutes.

  3. Gradually add the flour, mixing well, then fold in the egg whites gently for 4-5 minutes.

Bake and fill

  1. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto a buttered and floured baking tin, shaping them like peach halves.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C) and bake the cakes for about 10 minutes until lightly browned.

  3. Remove from the oven, spread the flat side of each cake with peach jam, and sandwich them in pairs.

Ice and colour

  1. Cover the outside with a thin layer of icing and brush one side with cochineal water once 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

  4. Flour + peachtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together787 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Eggs
Whipped whites give the batter lift and an airy, light structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and, beaten with the yolks, adds body and a fine texture.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the cakes' structure as they bake.
Peach jam
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture between the two cake halves.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped whites hold the batter's air, so fold them in gently and briefly. Vigorous stirring knocks out the air and leaves the cakes dense and flat.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour. 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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