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Dessert

Rolled Jelly Cake

A rolled cake made from eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder, and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and sugar 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 ↓

Rolled Jelly 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs until fluffy.

  3. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until well combined.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then fold into the egg mixture.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and spread evenly.

Bake and roll

  1. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

  2. Once baked, spread jelly over the cake while it is still hot.

  3. Roll the cake up carefully and let it cool before serving.

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 + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. 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

Eggs
Beaten until fluffy, they trap air that gives the sponge its light structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the sponge together so it can be rolled.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, beaten with the eggs, helps stabilize the foam.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and stays tender.
Jelly
Adds sweetness and moisture to the filling inside the rolled cake.

The step that matters

Rolling the cake while it is still hot. Warm sponge is flexible and less likely to crack. If it cools fully before rolling, it becomes brittle and can split, so roll it promptly after spreading the jelly.

“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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