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 Cream Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the egg whites and yolks
In a bowl, combine the salt and half of the lemon juice with the egg whites. Beat until it has a cooked appearance and set aside in a cool room or on ice.
In another bowl, add the remaining lemon juice to the egg yolks and beat until thick and creamy.
Add the sugar to the yolks and beat again, then mix in the coconut cream until thick.
Combine and bake
Gently fold the yolk mixture into the egg whites without beating.
Sift in the flour gradually, folding it in carefully to avoid toughness.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour, ensuring it is done before removing.
Cool
Turn the cake bottom side up after baking to prevent it from falling, ensuring the tins are not oiled and allowing air to circulate underneath.
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.
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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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Flour + sugartop 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 + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
- Egg whites and yolks provide the structure that holds the light, airy cake together.
- White flour
- Flour sets the cake's crumb once baked, giving it body beyond the eggs.
- White granulated sugar
- Sugar sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the yolks as they are beaten.
- Coconut cream
- Coconut cream adds moisture and rich flavour to the batter.
- Lemon juice
- Lemon juice adds acidity that helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.
The step that matters
Folding the yolk mixture into the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped egg whites intact. Beating or deflating them would collapse the foam and leave the cake dense and flat.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, cream):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, cream. 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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