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Dessert

Rose Cake

A fragrant cake made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, citron peel, rose flower water, and rose leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rose Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Rub the butter into the flour.

  3. Beat the yolks and sugar until white and creamy.

  4. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  5. Combine the yolk and sugar mixture with the flour and butter.

  6. Mix well, then gently fold in the whipped egg whites.

  7. Add the citron peel, baking powder, and rose flower water, mixing until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a well-greased tin, placing some rose leaves in with the batter.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

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 + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness, and is rubbed into the flour for a crumbly texture.
Eggs
Yolks add richness and moisture, while whipped whites lighten the batter and help it rise.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, beaten with the yolks, helps create a light, creamy base.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the cake rise and become airy.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Whites hold air only while whipped; stirring them hard deflates the foam and makes the cake dense. Fold gently and keep the mixture as light as possible.

“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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