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Dessert

Cocoanut Pound Cake

A moist pound cake flavored with coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cocoanut Pound 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.

Prepare

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

  2. Line the cake pans with well-buttered paper and fill them slightly more than half full.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter and sugar until very light.

  2. Add the beaten egg yolks and milk, then the beaten egg whites.

  3. Gradually mix in the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  4. Stir in the grated coconut.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in the preheated oven.

  2. Once baked, spread a thin frosting on top and sprinkle with grated coconut.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Yolks enrich the batter, and beaten whites add lift and an airy structure.
Flour
Builds the structure that holds the cake's crumb as it bakes and sets.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, traps air that helps it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, coconut flavour and a slightly chewy texture.

The step that matters

Beat the butter and sugar until very light. Creaming beats air into the fat and sugar, and these air pockets expand in the oven to give lift. Under-beaten butter and sugar leave a denser cake with a heavier crumb.

“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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