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Dessert

Orange Cake

A moist cake flavored with orange and lemon zest, topped with a citrus icing.

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

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

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

  2. Beat the eggs very light in a large bowl.

  3. Mix in the powdered sugar and creamed butter until well combined.

  4. Pour in half the milk.

  5. Dissolve the cream of tartar and baking soda in the other half of the milk.

  6. Quickly add the sifted flour after pouring in the foaming milk.

Bake and ice

  1. Pour the batter into jelly‑cake pans and bake until golden.

  2. For the icing, combine the grated peel and juice of the oranges and lemons with enough powdered sugar to achieve a smooth paste.

  3. Spread the icing between the layers of the cooled cake and on top.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Beaten eggs trap air and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds tenderness and richness.
All-purpose flour
Its proteins set during baking to form the cake's structure.
Cream of tartar
Reacts with baking soda to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas for rising and a lighter crumb.
Oranges
Peel and juice add aroma, acidity and flavour to the cake and icing.

The step that matters

Quickly add the sifted flour after pouring in the foaming milk. The cream of tartar and baking soda react as soon as they meet liquid and release gas. Delaying the flour lets that gas escape before the batter sets, so the cake rises less well.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, sugar, flour, 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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