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Dessert

Rolled Jelly Cake

A light cake rolled with jelly or melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rolled Jelly 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 the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg yolks and gradually add the sugar.

  3. Beat the egg whites and gently fold them into the yolk mixture.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then slowly add to the batter.

  5. Stir in the hot water.

Bake and roll

  1. Line a long baking pan with buttered paper and pour in the batter to a depth of ¼ inch.

  2. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until done.

  3. Remove the cake from the pan and tear off the paper.

  4. Spread jelly or melted chocolate on the cake and roll it up.

  5. Wrap a napkin tightly around the cake to hold its shape until cool.

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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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 + chocolatetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air and the yolks enrich the batter, giving the cake its light structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks whip to a stable, airy foam.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the thin sponge rises and stays tender.
Jelly or melted sweet chocolate
Adds moisture and sweetness inside the rolled cake and helps it hold together.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the yolk mixture. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whites intact. Stirring or deflating them makes the batter dense and can leave the thin sponge too flat to roll without cracking.

“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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