Why it works: Coconut and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,233 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Cocoanut Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the egg yolks thoroughly, then strain the beaten yolks.
Add the sugar to the yolks and beat the mixture again.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold the stiff whites into the yolk mixture.
Gently sift in the flour and stir the batter lightly.
Pour the batter into jelly-cake tins.
Bake and ice
Bake for about 20 minutes.
Whisk the 2 egg whites until firm.
Add the icing sugar, grated coconut, and lemon juice, then beat the icing mixture together.
Layer the cake with the coconut icing and keep the icing on top.
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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Coconut + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,233 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + coconuttop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,315 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 trap air, giving the sponge its lift and light structure.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's crumb once baked.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
- Icing sugar
- Sweetens the icing and gives it a smooth, spreadable body with the whites.
- Fresh grated coconut
- Adds coconut flavour and chewy texture to the icing.
The step that matters
Folding the stiff egg whites into the yolk mixture. Stiff whites hold the air that makes the sponge rise. Stirring them in or overmixing knocks out that air, and the cake bakes up dense and flat.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg, lemon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, 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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