Why it works: Walnut and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Angel Cake Torte
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine the flour, walnuts, sugar, dates, and baking powder.
Mix and bake
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and then fold in the beaten egg whites last.
Gently mix the egg mixture into the dry ingredients until just combined.
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until golden.
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.
-
Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together302 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + datestop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg 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
- Beaten eggs and whites trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Its proteins set during baking, giving the cake its structure.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender and browning even.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Dates
- Add moisture and natural sweetness to the cake.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that makes this cake light. Stirring them vigorously knocks that air out, while gentle folding keeps the batter airy and the cake from turning dense.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, dates, egg):
- Almondfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Mixed nutsfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, dates, egg. 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.
More angel cake recipes
You might also like
Stuffed Dates32 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.