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Dessert

Silver and Gold Cake

A layered cake with a silver layer of beaten egg whites and a gold layer of beaten egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Silver and Gold Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Sift the flour and baking powder together.

  2. Beat the butter until creamy.

  3. Gradually add the sugar and almond extract.

  4. Mix the milk into the butter and sugar mixture.

  5. Divide the mixture in half.

Bake the two batters

  1. To one half, add the beaten whites of 3 eggs and half the flour, and stir gently.

  2. Pour the mixture into two layer cake pans.

  3. Bake until done.

  4. To the other half, add the beaten yolks of 4 eggs and the remaining flour, and stir gently.

  5. Pour the mixture into two layer cake pans.

  6. Bake until done.

Assemble

  1. Once baked, layer the cakes with the silver layer on top.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Provide structure and richness; whites alone make the light silver layer, yolks the gold.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once mixed with liquid and egg.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the crumb a tender texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cakes rise.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites gently. Beaten whites trap air that gives the silver layer its lightness. Vigorous stirring deflates them, leaving a denser cake.

“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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