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Lemon Jelly Foe Layer Cake

A layer cake made with a lemon-flavored jelly spread between cake layers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,227 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemon Jelly Foe Layer Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lemon filling

  1. Combine sugar, lemon juice, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Melt over low heat until fully dissolved.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and whole eggs together.

  4. Stir the beaten eggs into the mixture.

  5. Stir rapidly until the mixture thickens to the consistency of honey.

Assemble

  1. Spread the mixture between layers of cake.

  2. Pack any remaining mixture in jelly glasses.

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. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 yolks and whole eggs
Provide structure and thickening as they cook, setting the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it dissolve smoothly into the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Stir rapidly until the mixture thickens. Egg proteins set when heated, so the eggs can curdle or scramble if the mixture overheats or is not stirred constantly. Stirring keeps the heat even and gives a smooth, thick curd.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

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