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Dessert

Sunshine Cake

A light cake made with egg whites, yolks, sugar, flour, and optional flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Sunshine Cake

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 ↓

Sunshine 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. Sift and measure the flour and sugar. Set aside.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg yolks until very stiff and frothy.

  2. Whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue whipping until very stiff.

  3. Gradually add the sugar to the whipped egg whites and beat until combined.

  4. Fold in the beaten egg yolks gently.

  5. Fold in the flour lightly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a cake pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 40 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 to a stiff foam, they trap air that lifts and gives the cake its light structure.
Egg yolks
Beaten and folded in, they add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
Flour
Folded in lightly, it provides the structure that holds the airy batter as it bakes.
Granulated sugar
Added to the whipped whites, it sweetens the cake and helps stabilize the foam.
Cream of tartar
Added to the whites, it acidifies them, helping the foam whip stiffer and hold its volume.

The step that matters

Folding in the yolks and flour. Overmixing or stirring vigorously knocks air out of the whipped whites, so the cake bakes flat and dense. Fold gently with a wide motion, stopping once just combined.

“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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