Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Angel Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Add the cream of tartar to the flour and sift five times through a wire sieve.
Sift the icing sugar through a fine sieve.
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites until very stiff.
Gently fold the icing sugar, vanilla, and flour into the egg whites until combined.
Bake and serve
Pour the batter into a greased cake tin dusted with a mixture of equal parts icing sugar and flour.
Bake for about 40 minutes without opening the oven door for the first 20 minutes.
Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool.
If desired, ice with white icing flavored with vanilla.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- Vienna flour
- Provides the starch and protein that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so they hold their volume.
- Icing sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, being fine, blends into the foam with little loss of air.
- Vanilla extract
- Adds aroma and a warm flavor to the cake.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until very stiff and folding gently. Stiff egg whites trap the air that makes an angel cake rise. Overbeating makes them dry and grainy, while heavy folding deflates the foam and leaves a dense cake.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, cream, sugar, butter):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Coconutfits less well
- Figfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, cream, sugar, butter. 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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