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Dessert

Pineapple Cake

A layered pineapple cake with a sweet egg white topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 911 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pineapple 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 the batter

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

  2. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs together until well combined.

  3. In a bowl, mix the powdered sugar, cold water, flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  4. Layer the batter in a cake pan and bake until golden.

Make the filling and topping

  1. In a separate bowl, mix the grated pineapple with lemon juice and sweeten to taste.

  2. Combine the beaten egg whites with 1 cup of powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

Assemble

  1. Spread the pineapple mixture between the layers and on top of the cake.

  2. Top with the egg white mixture.

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. Pineapple + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together911 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  4. Pineapple + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 crumb together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Cream of tartar
Acidic, helping the baking soda react and stabilising the beaten egg whites.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and the whites trap air for a light topping.
Grated pineapple
Adds moisture, fruity sweetness and a bright acidity that balances the cake.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps give the batter and topping a fine, tender texture.

The step that matters

Combine the beaten egg whites with 1 cup of powdered sugar and vanilla extract.. Egg whites must be beaten to a stable foam before the sugar is added. Adding sugar gradually and not overbeating keeps the air in the foam, so the topping stays light and does not weep or collapse.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, cream, pineapple, vanilla):

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, cream, pineapple, vanilla. 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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