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Dessert

Orange Loaf Cake

A moist loaf cake flavored with orange zest and juice, topped with an orange-flavored frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 Loaf Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks, orange juice, grated rind, and cold water; mix well.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then add to the mixture, beating well.

  5. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  6. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make and spread the frosting

  1. For the frosting, beat the egg white until stiff, then gradually add the sugar.

  2. Stir in the orange juice and grated rind, mix well, and spread over the cooled cake.

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.

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. Egg + flourtop 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. Butter + sugartop 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
Whole eggs and whipped whites give the cake its structure and light, airy crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming with butter traps air for lightness.
Flour
Forms the cake's main structure as its proteins set during baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise.
Orange rind
Adds aromatic citrus flavour throughout the cake and frosting.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whipped whites hold the air that lightens the batter. Stirring them vigorously deflates that foam, leaving a dense cake, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the orange

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

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

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