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Dessert

Angel Cake

A light, airy cake made from whipped egg whites, sugar, flour, and bitter almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Angel Cake

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Angel Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whip them to a foam.

  3. Add the cream of tartar and continue whipping until very stiff.

Make the batter

  1. Gently fold in the sifted sugar and then the bitter almond extract.

  2. Gradually fold in the flour very lightly; do not beat.

  3. Pour the batter into an ungreased Van Dusen pan.

Bake and cool

  1. Bake for 1 hour, until the cake rises and is lightly browned.

  2. When the top is browned, place a pan of cold water above the cake to prevent scorching.

  3. Remove the cake from the oven and invert it to cool in the mold.

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.

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.

  1. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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 into a foam that traps air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the cake and, folded into stiff whites, helps stabilize the foam.
All-purpose flour
Provides the light structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Cream of tartar
Stabilizes the whipped egg whites so the foam holds its volume longer.

The step that matters

Folding in the flour. Overmixing or beating after the flour goes in deflates the air bubbles in the whipped whites, which makes the cake dense instead of light. Fold gently and only until the flour disappears.

“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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