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Dessert

Angel Cake

A light, airy cake made from whipped egg whites, sugar, flour, cream of tartar, and a pinch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Angel Cake

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. 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.

Whip the egg whites

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

  2. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites.

  3. Whip the egg whites until they are half beaten.

  4. Add the cream of tartar.

  5. Continue whipping until very stiff peaks form.

  6. Gradually add the sugar while beating.

  7. Add your desired flavoring.

Fold and bake

  1. Sift the flour four times.

  2. Sift the sugar two times.

  3. Gently fold the flour into the egg mixture.

  4. Pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan.

  5. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 structure and rise.
Flour
Sets during baking to form the cake's structure around the air bubbles.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, stabilizing the foam so it holds its peaks.

The step that matters

Gently folding the flour into the egg mixture. The cake's rise depends on air trapped in the whipped egg whites. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the batter comes out dense and short.

“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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