Name: Angel or Sponge Cake with Chestnuts
Ingredients: angel or sponge cake; chestnuts; whipped cream; maraschino (optional); sugar (for sweetening water)

Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Angel or Sponge Cake with Chestnuts

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Bake an angel or sponge cake in a sheet pan at 350°F (175°C).
When cold, cut the cake in half and cover with a layer of chestnuts and whipped cream.
Alternatively, bake in a round pan, then cut out the center.
Fill the center with chestnuts and cover the top with whipped cream flavored with maraschino.
Shell and blanch the chestnuts, then boil them in sweetened water until soft.
Mash the cooked chestnuts through a sieve before using them in 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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Chestnut + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together647 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Chestnut + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together643 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).