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 ↓
Superior Sunshine 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.
Prepare
Sift and measure the flour and sugar, then set aside.
Beat the egg yolks thoroughly.
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks form.
Stir in the sugar, then the beaten yolks, followed by the flour and flavor to taste.
Pour the batter into a tube pan and bake immediately in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 35 to 50 minutes.
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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Sugar + flourtop 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 stiff peaks to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and moisture and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
- Flour
- Provides structure as the batter sets during baking.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilize the whipped egg whites.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so they hold their stiff peaks longer.
The step that matters
Bake the batter immediately after mixing. Whipped egg white foam begins to lose air as it sits, so the batter should go into the oven right away to keep the cake light and tall.
“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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