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Dessert

Ribbon Cake

A layered cake made from two batters, each flavored differently, with optional fruit and frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Ribbon Cake

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.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add 5 egg yolks, 1 cup of milk, 2 cups of flour, and 1½ teaspoons of baking powder. Mix well.

  4. Divide the batter in half.

  5. Flavor one half with orange and the other with vanilla and enough grated chocolate to color it brown.

  6. For the second half, cream together 1 cup of butter and 1½ cups of sugar.

  7. Add 5 egg whites, 1 cup of milk, 2 cups of flour, and 1½ teaspoons of baking powder. Mix well.

  8. Divide this batter in half.

  9. Flavor one half with lemon and the other with rose water and cochineal to color it pink or red.

Assemble and bake

  1. Take enough batter from each half for 1 layer.

  2. Mix the remaining batter together and fold in your choice of fruit.

  3. Bake in 5 layers, alternating the fruit layers with the flavored layers.

  4. Assemble the cake while hot, without any filling between the layers.

  5. Frost the top if desired.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, fluffy crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, tenderizing the crumb and helping it set.
Egg whites
Whipped into the batter's structure, adding lift and a lighter texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the layers together once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping each layer rise and become light.
Sugar
Sweetens the layers and helps them brown and stay tender.

The step that matters

Assemble the cake while hot, without any filling between the layers. Layers are stacked while still warm and soft, so they bind to one another; if they cool fully first they may crumble or slide apart when handled.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, flour, milk, vanilla, chocolate):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, flour, milk, vanilla, chocolate. 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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