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Ribbon Cake

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Ribbon Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Sift the baking powder into the flour.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar until light, then add the milk.

  3. Gradually mix in the beaten egg whites and flour alternately.

  4. Divide the batter into four equal parts.

  5. Flavor one part with bitter almond for the white layer.

  6. Color another part pink with cochineal and flavor with rose water.

  7. Beat the yolks of two eggs and add to the third part, flavoring with lemon extract for the yellow layer.

  8. Mix the Baker's chocolate with a little water and stir into the fourth part for the dark layer, flavoring with vanilla.

  9. For the icing, dissolve 1 pound of sugar in 1½ cups of water and boil until it ropes.

  10. Pour the syrup gradually into the beaten egg whites, beating until cool and flavoring with vanilla.

  11. Stir in the grated coconuts.

  12. Spread the icing between each layer and on the top and sides of the cake.

  13. Layer the cake starting with the chocolate layer at the bottom, followed by the yellow, pink, and white layers.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

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