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Mandarin Orange Cake III

"Easy and delicious scratch cake topped with coconut walnut sauce. The mandarin oranges make it very moist. "

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Mandarin orange and milk share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 38 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

1 - 8 inch square pan
Prep20 min
Cook35 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease an 8-inch square pan.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, white sugar, baking soda and salt.

  3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg and vanilla extract, then stir them into the dry ingredients until just combined.

  4. Fold the drained mandarin oranges and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts into the batter, then spread it evenly in the prepared pan.

  5. In another bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, milk, flaked coconut and the remaining 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Spread this topping over the batter.

  6. Bake for about 35 minutes, until the topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan before cutting.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Mandarin orange + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together38 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Vanilla + milktop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Milk + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + mandarin orangetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the walnut

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

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Pecansabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, vanilla, mandarin orange, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).