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Dessert

Moonshine Cake

A cake made with a sugar syrup, eggs, flour, and baked slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Moonshine Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Sift the flour, cornstarch, and cream of tartar together twice.

  2. Make a syrup by boiling water and sugar together.

Make the batter

  1. Once the syrup is cool, pour it into well-beaten egg whites.

  2. Stir in the well-beaten yolks and the sifted flour mixture.

  3. Pour the batter into a deep ungreased pan with a tube.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 40 to 60 minutes.

  2. Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes.

  3. When done, turn the cake upside down on glasses until it cools and sweats.

  4. Frost as desired.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure once its starch sets during baking.
Eggs
Whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and help bind the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to help the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Stabilises the beaten egg whites so their foam holds during mixing and baking.
Cornstarch
Softens the crumb by diluting the flour's gluten-forming proteins.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.

The step that matters

Do not open the oven door for the first 20 minutes. The batter's egg-white foam is still setting early in baking. Opening the door drops the oven temperature and can make the rising cake sink or collapse.

“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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