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Dessert

Orange Cake

A sweet cake made with sugar, butter, flour, eggs, orange rind and juice, baked in square tins and frosted with a sugar‑orange‑egg white glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Orange Cake

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Orange Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cake

  1. Beat the whites of three eggs and the yolks of five eggs separately.

  2. Stir to a cream. Add two cups sugar and one-half cup butter.

  3. Add one-half cup cold water.

  4. Add two and one-half cups flour with two teaspoons baking powder, grated rind of one orange and all the juice (except about one tablespoon). Stir into the batter.

  5. Bake in two square tins.

Frost and finish

  1. Beat the whites of two eggs.

  2. Add two small cups sugar and a tablespoon of the orange juice saved from the cake.

  3. When the cake is cold, combine the frosting with the cake and frost the tops.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

746Calories
21 gProtein
18 gFat
123 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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
Whites trap air for lift, and yolks add richness and structure to the batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the cake tender and moist.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crumb tender and rich in flavor.
Flour
Provides the starch and protein that build the cake's structure as it sets.
Orange
Its rind adds aroma and its juice adds moisture and bright acidity.

The step that matters

Separating the eggs. Egg whites must be free of any yolk, since fat from the yolk stops the whites from whipping to full volume. Keep the yolks and whites in separate bowls until you need them.

Swap the orange

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

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

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