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 ↓
Angel 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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Sift the sugar and flour together three times, then mix in the baking powder and salt.
Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy.
Make and bake the cake
Gradually add the sugar mixture to the egg whites, beating thoroughly.
Gently fold in the flour mixture and add flavoring to taste.
Pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan and bake for one hour.
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 + 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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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 foam that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking to give the cake additional rise.
The step that matters
Folding in the flour mixture. Overmixing or deflating the whipped egg whites knocks out the air bubbles that give angel cake its rise. Fold gently so the batter stays light.
“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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