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 ↓
Sunshine 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).
Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl until thick and light, then add the orange extract and set aside.
In a measuring cup, combine the corn starch and cream of tartar, then fill the cup rounding full with flour and sift once or twice.
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites until dry, then gradually beat in the sugar.
Add the yolk mixture to the egg whites and beat just enough to combine.
Fold in the sifted flour mixture gently.
Bake and finish
Pour the batter into a cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes.
Cool the cake and ice it as desired.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Orange + corntop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Corn + flourtop 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).
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
- Egg whites
- Whipped to foam, they trap air that lifts the cake as it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and tenderness, and help the batter set as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake's airy crumb once baked.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilises the whipped egg whites so they hold their volume.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until dry, then gradually beat in the sugar. Whites must be whipped to stiff, stable peaks before folding; under-beaten whites collapse and deflate the batter, while over-beaten whites turn grainy and dry. Adding sugar gradually helps the foam stay glossy and stable.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream, corn, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream, corn, flour. 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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