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Dessert

Jam Sandwich

A cake sandwich made with two cakes and jam between.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Jam Sandwich

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Grease and line two flat baking tins.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the margarine and sugar together.

  2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  3. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then add the milk and mix well.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into the tins and bake for about 10 minutes.

  2. Once baked, spread jam on one cake and place the other cake on top.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cakes rise and become light.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with fat.
Margarine
Adds fat for tenderness and moisture, and helps trap air when creamed.
Jam
Adds sweetness, fruit flavour and moisture between the two cake layers.

The step that matters

Creaming the margarine and sugar. Beating fat and sugar together traps air bubbles that help the cake rise and keep a light texture. Under-creamed fat gives a dense, heavy sponge.

“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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