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Dessert

Ice Cream Cake

A layered cake with a sweet icing made from egg whites and sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Ice Cream 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 batter

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

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sweet milk, flour, corn starch, and baking powder, and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until very light and fluffy.

  5. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Bake the cakes

  1. Pour the batter into cake pans, making cakes about 1 inch thick.

  2. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Make and spread the icing

  1. For the icing, beat the egg whites until very light.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and boiling water, and boil until clear.

  3. Pour the boiling syrup over the beaten egg whites and beat until nearly cold.

  4. Add the citric acid and vanilla extract, mixing well.

  5. Spread the icing thickly over the cooled cakes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

Eggs
Whites trap air for lift in the cake and build the fluffy, stable icing.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and gives the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake, tenderizes the crumb, and forms the syrup that sets the icing.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, making the cakes rise and become light.
Citric acid
Adds acidity that helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam in the icing.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling syrup into the beaten egg whites. The hot syrup must be poured in a steady stream while beating, so it cooks the whites and builds a stable, glossy foam. Pouring too fast or letting it cool can leave the icing runny or grainy.

“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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