Name: Coconut Sheet Cake with Hibiscus Sauce
Yield: Makes 15 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups water; 1 cup dried hibiscus flowers (about 1 1/2 ounces); 1/2 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel; 1 teaspoon finely grated lime peel; 1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel; 1 3/4 cups cake flour; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 2/3 cup buttermilk; 4 large egg whites; 1/4 teaspoon coconut extract; 1 1/3 cups sugar; 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature; 1 1/2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream; 4 tablespoons sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco López), divided; 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, lightly toasted; Ingredient info: Dried hibiscus flowers, also called flowers, are available at some natural foods stores and at Latin markets. Look for sweetened cream of coconut in the liquor section of most supermarkets.; Test-kitchen tip: When you're reducing the hibiscus sauce, spoon a bit of the hot sauce on a chilled plate to see how thick it will be when it is refrigerated.

Why it works: Lemon and lime match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,289 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,289 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lime + coconuttop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together934 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Lime + orangetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together937 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour + buttermilktop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, lime, orange, flour, buttermilk, egg):

Blueberryfits better
Raisinfits better
Avocadofits better
Coconutthe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Flower	not in our table	0
Liquor	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Coconut Sheet Cake with Hibiscus Sauce