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Baking

A Solimemne

A sweet yeast cake made with flour, egg yolks, butter and sugar, baked in a mold and served with melted butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 41,494 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

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

Make the leaven

  1. For the leaven, mix 3 ounces of flour with 1/2 ounce of yeast and 2-3 tablespoons of warm cream or milk to form a paste.

  2. Cover the leaven and let it rise near heat for 30 minutes.

Make and bake the dough

  1. In a bowl, make a hollow in the remaining flour.

  2. Add 1/4 ounce of salt, 1 ounce of sugar, 4 egg yolks, 4 ounces of lukewarm butter, and 2 tablespoons of warm cream to the hollow. Mix until smooth.

  3. Flatten the mixture on a surface, add the leaven, and knead lightly until well combined.

  4. Place the dough in a well-buttered cake mold and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

  5. Brush the top with beaten egg.

  6. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour, avoiding over-browning.

Serve

  1. Once baked, turn it out, slice it, and pour melted butter over the slices. Reassemble and serve immediately.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cream + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together118,511 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Flour + eggtop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together104,138 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Yeast
Ferments and produces gas, causing the dough to rise and become light.
Egg yolks
Add richness and tenderness, and help bind the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the crust brown during baking.

The step that matters

Avoiding over-browning during baking. The sugar and proteins in the crust brown quickly at high oven heat, so the top can darken before the centre is fully baked. Watching the colour and adjusting placement helps the cake bake through evenly.

“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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