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Dessert

Orange Cake

A light, buttery cake flavored with orange zest and juice, topped with an orange-flavored egg white frosting.

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

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 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the water, flour, baking powder, egg yolks, and the grated rind and juice of the orange. Mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter gently.

Bake and frost

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30‑35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add sugar until stiffened. Mix in the grated rind and juice of the orange.

  3. Once the cake is cool, frost it with the orange 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. 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. Flour + eggtop 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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, fine-textured crumb.
Flour
Forms the cake's structure once heated, setting the crumb as the batter bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks and folded in, adding lift and an airy, light texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and moisture, and help bind the batter together.
Baking powder
Releases gas when heated, helping the cake rise.
Orange
Its rind and juice add citrus aroma and a bright, slightly acidic flavour.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that gives the cake its lift. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out that air, so the cake bakes up dense; fold gently with a spatula instead.

Swap the orange

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

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

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