Name: Orange Cakje
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar; 2 cups flour; ½ cup cold water; ¼ teaspoon salt; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 4 eggs (reserve the white of 1 for frosting); 2 oranges (1 chopped fine, juice of the other for frosting)

Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Orange Cakje

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, cold water, salt, baking powder, and eggs.
Stir in the chopped orange.

Bake and frost

Divide the batter into three layers and bake until golden.
For the frosting, use the juice of the reserved orange.

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.

Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + orangetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,821 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

Eggs: Provide structure and richness, helping the batter set as it bakes.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake crumb as the batter sets.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown as it bakes.
Baking powder: Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and become light.
Orange: Adds moisture and bright citrus aroma and flavor to the batter.