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Dessert

White Citron Cake

A light, frothy cake flavored with sliced citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Citron Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the cold water and mix well.

  3. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until frothy.

  4. Stir in 2 cups of flour and the beaten egg whites into the mixture.

  5. Combine the remaining flour with the baking powder and add to the batter.

Fold in and finish

  1. Fold in the remaining beaten egg whites and the sliced citron, then mix again.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Adds sweetness and helps tenderize the crumb by competing with flour for moisture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, soft texture.
Egg whites
Whipped foam traps air, adding lightness and structure to the cake.
Flour
Builds the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, causing the cake to rise.
Citron
Contributes its citrus aroma and flavor, plus some texture to the crumb.

The step that matters

Folding in the remaining beaten egg whites. The whipped egg whites hold trapped air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates that foam, so the cake can bake up dense. Fold gently until 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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