Name: Golden Cream-cake
Ingredients: 8 egg yolks; 2 cups sugar; a pinch of salt; 3 teaspoons baking powder; flour (enough for the cake); 3 egg whites; 1 pound sugar (for icing); grated coconut (for topping)

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 ↓

Golden Cream-cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake

Beat the yolks of 8 eggs until light and creamy.
Mix in 2 cups of sugar and a pinch of salt.
Sift 3 teaspoons of baking powder with enough flour to form a batter.
Pour the batter into 3 jelly cake pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

Ice and finish

For the icing, beat the whites of 3 eggs and gradually add 1 pound of sugar until smooth.
Spread the icing between the baked cakes and sprinkle grated coconut thickly over each layer.

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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + coconuttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,315 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + coconuttop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,742 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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 yolks: Add richness, colour and tenderness to the batter.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Egg whites: Whipped into the icing, they give it a smooth, airy body.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.