Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cocoanut Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the batter
Beat the yolks of the eggs with the sugar until well combined.
Whip the egg whites to a stiff froth and gently fold them into the yolk mixture.
Stir in the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Add lemon flavoring to taste.
Bake and ice
Pour the batter into a prepared cake pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
Once cooled, ice the cake with the beaten egg whites and cover with coconut.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + coconuttop 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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Egg + flourtop 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).
Egg and flour 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 lift the batter and give the cake its airy, light structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps stabilise the beaten yolks.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilises the whipped egg whites so they hold their foam.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the batter's acidity to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
The step that matters
Folding the whipped egg whites into the yolk mixture. Whites deflate if stirred vigorously, losing the air that makes the cake rise. Folding gently with a spatula keeps the foam intact, so the cake bakes up light rather than dense.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, cream, lemon):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, cream, 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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