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Dessert

Banana Cake

A layered banana cake with a banana filling made from sliced bananas, powdered sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and banana are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,430 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Banana Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the egg yolks, water, and vanilla extract, mixing well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture.

  6. Sift in the flour, cream of tartar, and salt, and fold until just combined.

Bake and fill

  1. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the filling, beat together the sliced bananas, powdered sugar, and the whites of two eggs until smooth.

  3. Spread the filling on the cooled cake and top with additional banana slices.

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. Vanilla + bananatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Creaming with sugar traps air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb and rich flavour.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add lift and an airy structure to the batter.
Egg yolks
Add richness, moisture and tenderness, and help bind the batter.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine, soft texture.
Bananas
Add moisture, sweetness and banana flavour to the cake and filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Stirring them in vigorously knocks that air out, so fold gently and stop once no white streaks remain.

Swap the banana

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Bananathe original

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