Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the eggs until very light.
Mix in the powdered sugar and creamed butter.
Pour in half the milk.
Dissolve the cream of tartar and baking soda in the other half of the milk.
Quickly add the sifted flour after pouring in the foaming milk.
Bake and ice
Bake in jelly‑cake pans until golden.
Grate the peel and squeeze the juice of the oranges.
Mix the orange juice and grated peel with 2 pounds of powdered sugar to make icing.
Spread the icing between the layers of the cake and on top.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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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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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Beaten to a light foam, they give the cake its lift and structure.
- Butter
- Creamed with the sugar, it adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the cream of tartar in the milk to release gas and raise the cake.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that activates the baking soda, producing bubbles that help the cake rise.
- Oranges
- Juice and peel flavour the icing with bright citrus aroma and acidity.
The step that matters
Quickly add the sifted flour after pouring in the foaming milk. The baking soda and cream of tartar react as soon as they meet liquid, releasing gas. Delaying the flour lets that gas escape before the batter sets, so the cake rises less. Adding the flour promptly and mixing gently keeps the bubbles in the batter.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, butter, milk, cream, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, butter, milk, cream, lemon. 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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