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Dessert

Oeange Cake

A sweet cake made with flour, baking powder, butter, sugar, milk, eggs, lemon extract, vanilla, and orange zest and juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Home for the Friendless (Chicago, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Oeange Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dry mix

  1. Combine two cups flour, one cup corn starch, one tablespoon baking powder, one teaspoon lemon extract, and one teaspoon vanilla; sift together.

Make the batter

  1. Add one cup butter and two cups sugar stirred to a cream.

  2. Add one teacup milk and half of the dry mixture.

  3. Stir well, then fold in the whites of seven beaten eggs, followed by the remaining dry mixture.

Bake and top

  1. Bake in jelly tins.

  2. Whisk the whites of two eggs with one cup powdered sugar, orange juice, and grated pulp of two oranges; top the cake with this meringue.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

970Calories
30 gProtein
32 gFat
140 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12

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.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  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. Lemon + teatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together610 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the crumb.
Eggs
Beaten whites trap air for lift, and the eggs add structure and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender, creamed texture.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
Oranges
Juice and grated pulp add acidity and bright citrus aroma to the meringue.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air in the batter, so the cake stays light instead of dense.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, cream, tea, vanilla, milk. 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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