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Dessert

Orange Cake

A light, citrus-flavored cake with orange zest and juice, topped with an orange-flavored 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.

  3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light.

  4. Add the orange zest and juice, except for 1 tablespoon, to the butter mixture.

  5. Mix in the cold water and part of the sifted flour with baking powder.

  6. Add the egg yolks, then alternate with the remaining flour until combined.

Make the frosting

  1. Beat the egg whites for the frosting in a separate bowl.

  2. Add the reserved tablespoon of orange juice and 2 cups of sugar to the egg whites, and beat until light.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into two square cake tins and bake until golden.

  2. Once slightly warm, layer frosting between the cakes and on top.

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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 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

Eggs
Whipped whites and yolks add lift and structure to the crumb.
Butter
Creaming with sugar traps air and adds tenderness and richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps hold air when creamed and beaten.
Flour
Forms the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Royal baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and stays light.
Orange
Adds citrus aroma and a bright flavour from the zest and juice.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg yolks and flour. Adding flour in alternation with the batter keeps the mixture smooth and prevents overmixing, which would toughen the crumb and deflate the air beaten into the batter.

Swap the orange

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

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

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