Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Cake Pudding
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Break the cake into small pieces and place them in a buttered pudding dish.
Make the custard
Make a rich custard by whisking together milk, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.
Pour the custard over the cake pieces.
For extra flavor, add coconut frosting before baking.
Bake
Bake in the oven until the top is light brown, about 30-40 minutes.
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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Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,294 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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
- Eggs
- Set the custard, giving the pudding a tender, sliceable structure.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard and keeps the pudding moist.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps the top brown as it bakes.
- Old bits of cake
- Soak up the custard, forming the body of the pudding.
The step that matters
Bake until the top is light brown. Eggs in the custard set with heat, so baking too long can make the pudding curdled, dry, or rubbery. Pull it when the top is set and lightly browned, and the center still has a slight wobble.
Swap the coconut
The recipe marks coconut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla):
- Figfits about as well
- Peachfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
- Strawberryfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla. 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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