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Dessert

Orange Cake

A cake made with flour, sugar, eggs, butter, orange, lemon, baking soda, cream of tartar, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Prepare

  1. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites.

  2. Beat the yolks lightly.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter with one cup of sugar until light and fluffy.

  2. Squeeze the orange juice over the other cup of sugar and mix.

  3. Add the beaten yolks to the butter-sugar mixture and stir.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add to the batter.

  5. Sift the flour with the cream of tartar and fold into the batter.

  6. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into the batter.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the batter into greased jelly pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. Dust the tops with powdered sugar after cooling.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

707Calories
21 gProtein
12 gFat
127 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

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

By Colville, Jessie Henderson. [from old catalog]. 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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Whites trap air for lift and the yolks add richness and structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
Baking soda
Reacts with acid in the batter to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Orange
Its juice adds acidity and citrus aroma to the batter.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Beaten whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, while gentle folding keeps the batter light and airy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

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