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Dessert

Orange Cake

A sweet cake flavored with orange juice and zest, topped with an orange-flavored frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Orange 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 ↓

Orange 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 egg whites until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks.

  3. Combine the sugar and beaten egg whites, then add the yolks.

  4. Stir in the water, orange juice, orange rind, and flour.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.

  2. For the frosting, beat the 2 remaining egg whites until stiff. Add a little juice and grated rind of the additional orange to the frosting.

  3. Spread the frosting between the layers of the cooled cake.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Flour and egg 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
Whipped whites give the cake its light, airy structure, while the yolks add richness and tenderness.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's structure as it bakes.
White sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps hold moisture and a tender crumb.
Cream of tartar
Stabilises the whipped egg whites so they hold their peaks.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the recipe to help the cake rise.
Orange juice and rind
Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma, and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Whites must be whipped to stiff peaks without deflating, since they supply most of the cake's rise. Any trace of yolk or grease in the bowl can stop them from whipping properly.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, cream, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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