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Dessert

Philadelphia White Mountain Cake

A light, lemon-flavored cake made with butter, eggs, milk, and sherry, baked in a 400°F oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and sherry work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Philadelphia White Mountain Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and powdered sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the egg yolks and beat until light and fluffy.

  3. Mix in the vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon rind, along with the ground mace.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  5. Gradually fold the egg whites into the batter, alternating with the milk.

  6. Sift together the corn starch and baking powder.

  7. Gradually add to the mixture while beating quickly.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into 3 large jelly cake tins.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 to 12 minutes.

  3. Test for doneness with a broom whisk; it should come out dry.

Finish

  1. Turn the layers out onto a board.

  2. Flip them back to have the top side facing up.

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. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Corn + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake's layers together.
Eggs
Whipped whites trap air for lift, while yolks add richness and structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it adds tenderness and a rich, fine crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the layers rise in the oven.
Corn starch
Softens the flour's gluten, producing a lighter, more tender crumb.
Milk
Adds moisture and loosens the batter so it bakes evenly.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites gently. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the cake rise. Folding gently and alternating with the milk keeps that foam from deflating, so the layers stay light.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, corn, vanilla, flour, egg, sherry):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, corn, vanilla, flour, egg, sherry. 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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