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Dessert

Ice Cream Cake

A layered baked cake with a powdered sugar filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Wash out the salt from the butter and cream it with the powdered sugar.

  3. Gradually add the milk and sifted flour mixed with baking powder.

  4. Fold in the stiff-beaten egg whites.

Bake and make the filling

  1. Bake the mixture in layers until golden.

  2. For the filling, boil the 4 cups of powdered sugar with boiling water until clear and thick.

  3. Pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites while beating until cool.

  4. Add the citric acid and vanilla extract, then mix well.

Assemble

  1. Spread the filling between the layers and on top of the cake.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 tender, rich crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake layers together as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and stay light.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the batter and add structure as it sets.
Powdered sugar
Boiled into a syrup for the filling, it sets into a glossy, sweet, thick coating.
Citric acid
Adds a tart edge that balances the sweetness of the filling.

The step that matters

Beating the syrup into the egg whites. Pouring hot syrup slowly while beating keeps the whites from scrambling and lets the mixture cool into a stable, fluffy filling. Adding it too fast or while still very hot can deflate the foam.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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

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