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Dessert

Snow Cake

A light, airy cake made with arrowroot, powdered sugar, butter, egg whites, and almond or lemon extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 179 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Snow Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. Beat the butter until creamy.

Make the batter

  1. Gradually stir in the powdered sugar and arrowroot while beating the mixture.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gently fold the egg whites into the butter mixture and beat well for 25 minutes.

  4. Add the almond or lemon extract and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a buttered mold.

  2. Bake for 1.5 hours.

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. Arrowroot + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Provides the starchy bulk that gives the cake its fine, tender crumb.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts and lightens the cake.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and dissolves smoothly into the butter for an even texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold the air that lightens the cake. Folding gently keeps that air in; vigorous beating after folding can deflate the batter and leave a dense cake.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Sweet potatofits about as well
  2. Arrowrootthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, almond. 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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