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Dessert

Sandwich Cake

A sweet cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, flour, leavening, lemon, and coconut, topped with jelly or custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sandwich Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

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

  3. Add the egg yolks and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  5. If using, mix the cream of tartar into the flour.

  6. If using, mix the baking soda into the milk.

  7. Combine all ingredients.

  8. Add lemon extract to taste.

  9. Beat well for a few minutes.

Bake and assemble

  1. Divide the batter into four flat tins.

  2. Bake until golden.

  3. Once cooled, layer with jelly or custard.

  4. Sprinkle with moistened coconut.

  5. Ice the top 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

  5. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks add richness and moisture, while whites moistened coconut for the topping.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake layers to rise and become light.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake layers together.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Beat well for a few minutes. Beating the creamed butter, sugar and eggs traps air that helps the layers rise. Under-beating leaves a dense crumb, while the batter should be combined without overworking the flour.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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