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Baking

Mountain Cake

A layered cake with orange filling, made from egg whites, cornstarch, sugar, flour, butter, baking powder, milk, vanilla, and orange zest.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Mountain 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

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

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix cornstarch, sugar, flour, butter, baking powder, milk, and vanilla until smooth.

  4. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

  5. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

  6. Bake until golden.

Make the orange filling

  1. Dissolve cornstarch in a little water for the orange filling.

  2. Combine the grated orange rind, sugar, orange juice, lemon juice, and water in a saucepan.

  3. Cook until the mixture is clear.

  4. Stir in the dissolved cornstarch and cook until thickened.

  5. Let the filling cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the cooled filling between the cake layers.

  2. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top just before serving.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Vanilla + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

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

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb once baked.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Cornstarch
Thickens the orange filling so it sets and holds between the layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Egg whites hold the air that lifts the cake. Stirring them in vigorously knocks out air and makes the cake dense, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blackberryfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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