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
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Sift the flour and cream of tartar together four or five times.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the powdered sugar while continuing to beat until well combined.
Gently fold in the sifted flour mixture.
Bake
Pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan.
Bake for 5 minutes with both burners on, then reduce to one burner half turned and bake for 35 minutes.
Fill and finish
Once cooled, cut the cake in half.
In a bowl, mix the granulated sugar, egg white, and gum arabic to fill the cake.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps keep the beaten whites stable.
- All-purpose flour
- Sets during baking to form the cake's tender crumb structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that helps stabilize the beaten egg white foam.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the filling mixture.
The step that matters
Gently fold in the sifted flour mixture. Egg white foam traps the air that lifts the cake. Stirring or folding too vigorously deflates the foam, which produces a dense, heavy 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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