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Dessert

Cocoanut Layer Cake

A layered cake made with butter, sugar, eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, coconut, and a coconut filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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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 Layer Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the cake batter

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar until light.

  2. Add the egg yolks and beat well.

  3. Mix in the milk, flour, and baking powder.

  4. Fold in the Baker's Cocoanut and the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  5. Divide the batter into buttered and floured layer pans.

Bake and make the filling

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 minutes.

  2. For the filling, boil sugar and water until it forms a soft ball in cold water.

  3. Pour the hot syrup slowly into the stiffly beaten egg whites while beating continuously. Once stiff, add vanilla extract and cocoanut.

  4. Spread the filling between two layers of the cake.

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.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg yolks
Add richness and fat, helping the cake set tender and moist.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's shape as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, making the layers rise and turn light.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the batter and add airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, boiled with water, forms the syrup that sets the filling.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be poured slowly while beating constantly. Pouring too fast or letting the whites deflate can collapse the foam, leaving a runny filling instead of a stiff, marshmallow-like one.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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