Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Our Improved Angel Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the batter
Separate the egg whites and yolks, placing the yolks in a bowl for later use.
In a mixing bowl, add the salt to the egg whites.
Using an egg whip, whip the egg whites to a light froth, then add the cream of tartar and whip until very stiff.
Sift the sugar once and place it around the edge of the mixing bowl, folding it into the egg whites until dissolved.
Sift the flour five times, measure it, and fold it lightly into the egg mixture along with the flavoring powder.
Fold the mixture just until the sugar and flour are dissolved; avoid overmixing to keep the batter light.
Bake
Place the batter in a cold oven.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, increasing heat slightly.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam that forms the airy structure of the cake.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides light structure that sets the cake's crumb once baked.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip to a stronger, more stable foam.
The step that matters
Folding the flour and sugar into the egg whites. Overmixing knocks air out of the whipped whites, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Fold gently and stop once the sugar and flour are just incorporated.
“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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