Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Jelly 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Sift the flour, corn starch, baking soda, and cream of tartar together.
Make the batter
Gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg yolk mixture.
Carefully fold in the beaten egg whites until just combined.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Whipped whites give the cake its airy structure, while yolks add richness and moisture.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten framework that sets the cake's crumb once baked.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks whip into a light, fluffy base.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so they hold their stiff peaks longer.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Carefully fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped whites. Stirring hard would deflate the foam, leaving a denser, flatter cake.
“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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