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Dessert

Pineapple Cake

A white layer cake with a pineapple filling made from egg whites, sugar syrup, and fresh pineapple.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pineapple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,964 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pineapple Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cake

  1. Prepare a white layer cake as for Lemon Jelly Cake and let it cool.

Make the filling

  1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar and hot water and cook until it spins a thread from the spoon.

  2. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  3. Pour the hot syrup into the egg whites in a small stream while beating continuously.

  4. Continue beating until very stiff, then stir in the grated or finely chopped fresh pineapple.

  5. If using canned pineapple, simmer sliced pineapple in a saucepan until tender, then cool and chop.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling between the layers, on top, and on the sides of the cake.

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. Lemon + pineappletop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + pineappletop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Sugar
Sweetens the filling and, cooked into a syrup, gives it body when whipped into the egg whites.
Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the filling its light, airy structure.
Fresh pineapple
Adds fruit flavour and acidity to the filling.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be pour in a thin stream while beating constantly so the hot sugar cooks the whites into a stable, glossy foam rather than scrambling them or deflating the mixture.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, egg. 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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