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Dessert

Cocoanut Cake

A light coconut sponge cake with coconut frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Cocoanut Cake

Why it works: Corn and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 306 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange 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. 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 the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In another bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  4. Add the cold water to the butter mixture and mix well.

  5. Gradually add the flour, corn starch, and baking powder to the wet ingredients, mixing until smooth.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently until combined.

  7. Divide the batter evenly among four round cake pans.

Bake and frost

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

  2. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually add the powdered sugar and continue to beat until glossy.

  4. Fold in the shredded coconut.

  5. Once the cakes are cool, frost them with the coconut frosting.

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. Corn + coconuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together306 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, 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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps create a tender crumb when creamed with butter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises.
Shredded coconut
Adds chewy texture and coconut flavor to the frosting.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring instead of folding deflates the whipped egg whites, losing the air that gives the cake its lift. Fold gently until just combined.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutthe original
  4. Figfits about as well

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

More coconut cake recipes

Chocolate 6Filling 4Lemon 4 See all 345 →

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