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Dessert

Cocoa-nut Pound-cake

A moist pound cake flavored with lemon rind and grated coconut, baked in a square tin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cocoa-nut Pound-cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the butter until creamy.

  2. Gradually add the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, lemon rind, grated cocoa-nut, and beaten eggs.

  3. Mix in the milk until well combined.

Prepare the tins

  1. Butter square tins and line them with buttered paper.

Bake and ice

  1. Spread the mixture in the tins about 1.5 inches deep.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

  3. Once baked, spread sugar icing over the cakes and return to the oven for 1 to 2 minutes to dry.

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

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

  2. Cocoa + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together643 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

Fresh butter
Creamed butter gives the cake fat and a tender crumb.
Fine flour
Flour forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and richness to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and keep moist.
Grated cocoa-nut
Adds coconut flavour and moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Spreading the mixture to an even depth. The batter should be spread to a consistent depth so the cakes bake evenly. Uneven layers can cook unevenly, leaving some parts dry while others stay underbaked.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Milletfits better
  4. Cocoathe original

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