Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Snow Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In two bowls, place the egg whites with 1 tablespoon of sugar in each and beat to stiff peaks.
Set the flour in a pan of boiling water, stirring occasionally until needed.
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together until light, then mix in half of the flour.
Add half of the beaten egg whites, then the remaining flour and egg whites, followed by the lemon extract.
Pour the batter into well-buttered jelly cake plates, filling them half an inch deep.
Bake and assemble
Bake for about 10 minutes until light brown.
Layer the cake with grated coconut and raspberry syrup.
Finish with a layer of cake and icing topped with coconut.
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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Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,109 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Coconut + raspberrytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together121 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Egg whites
- Beaten to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Butter
- Creaming with sugar traps air and adds richness and a tender crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed butter hold air for a tender texture.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Whites beaten to stiff peaks hold the air that lifts the batter. Under-beaten whites collapse and give a dense cake, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, sugar, flour, lemon, raspberry, syrup):
- Vanillafits better
- Blackberryfits better
- Peachfits better
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, flour, lemon, raspberry, syrup. 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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