Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓
Orange Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cake
Make a white cup cake and bake in layers.
Once cooled, beat the egg whites until stiff.
Fill and frost
Whip in the powdered sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, and strained grated orange peel.
Reserve a little filling and mix in more powdered sugar to create frosting.
Spread the filling between the layers and use the frosting on the top layer.
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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Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 give the filling a light, airy structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, when mixed in, thickens it into a spreadable frosting.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the filling.
- Orange juice
- Adds moisture and citrus flavor to the filling.
- Grated orange peel
- Adds aromatic citrus oil for fragrance and flavor.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be fully cooled and free of any fat or yolk to whip to stiff peaks. Under-whipped whites make a loose filling, while over-whipped whites turn grainy and collapse.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, lemon):
- Orangethe original
- Vanillafits about as well
- Limefits less well
- Raisinfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, 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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