Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make the cake
In a bowl, mix the flour, eggs, powdered sugar, and rose water until smooth.
Pour the batter into iron gem pans.
Bake until light and hollow in the center.
Finish and serve
Once cooled, cut a round hole in the top like you would a melon.
Fill the hole with ice cream just before serving to prevent melting.
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + rosetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,584 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + rosetop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,643 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Flour and egg 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
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Set during baking to give the cake structure and lightness.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cake and contributes to its tender crumb and browning.
- Rose water
- Adds a floral aroma and some moisture to the batter.
The step that matters
Bake until light and hollow in the center. Baking long enough sets the eggs and flour into a firm shell. Underbaking leaves a collapsed or wet cake that cannot hold its shape when cut and filled.
“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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