Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. 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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and coconut.
Add the salt, milk, and eggs, mixing well.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, corn starch, and baking powder.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans and bake until golden brown.
Let cool before serving.
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.
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Milk + corntop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,955 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Corn + orangetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together586 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + corntop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,165 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, and help bind the batter together.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and become light.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake, softens the crumb, and helps the crust brown.
- Cottolene
- Fat that coats flour particles, giving a tender, moist crumb.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and hydrates the flour so the batter forms.
The step that matters
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined. Mixing only until the flour is just combined keeps gluten development limited, so the cake stays tender rather than tough and dense.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour, corn, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, corn, 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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