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Dessert

Cocoanut Cake

A moist lemon-flavored coconut cake with a butter-lemon-cream filling, topped with shredded coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Cocoanut Cake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla 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 ↓

Cocoanut 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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a large bowl.

  2. Gradually add the granulated sugar, mixing well.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice and grated lemon rind.

  4. Add the milk alternately with the sifted flour.

  5. Mix in the ¼ cup of flour sifted with baking powder.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently.

  7. Pour the batter into two large or three small cake pans.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the filling, cream the butter, then add lemon juice, cream, and vanilla.

  3. Mix in enough confectioners' sugar to achieve a spreadable consistency.

  4. Spread the filling between the layers and top with fresh shredded coconut.

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.

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

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

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb and fat for flavour.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as it sets in the oven.
Egg whites
Beaten and folded in to trap air, helping the cake rise and become light.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, giving the cake its lift as it bakes.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps create a soft, tender texture when creamed.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter and helps hydrate the flour for structure.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites gently. Egg whites hold air bubbles that give the cake its lift. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the cake may bake up dense and flat.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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