Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
White Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water.
Simmer for 1-2 minutes.
Pour the mixture over the beaten yolks in a bowl. Mix well.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks until creamy, about 15 minutes.
Sift and warm the flours.
Beat the egg whites to a foam.
Gradually add the flours and egg whites to the yolk mixture, alternating.
Bake
Oil and sugar a mold.
Pin paper around the top.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) until done.
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 + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + macetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together288 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Beaten to a foam, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Egg yolks
- Beaten until creamy, they add richness and tenderness to the crumb.
- Potato flour
- Lightens the crumb with a soft, tender texture as part of the flour blend.
- Vienna flour
- Provides flour structure to support the batter while keeping the crumb tender.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and, dissolved in water, forms a syrup that is folded into the yolks.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flours and egg whites, alternating. Adding flour and foamed whites slowly, in turns, keeps the air trapped in the whites from collapsing and keeps the batter smooth, so the cake rises evenly and stays light.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, potato, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, potato, 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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