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 Layer 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
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the yolks of the eggs and stir in the sugar.
Fold in the beaten egg whites until combined.
Sift the flour with cream of tartar and fold into the mixture.
Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water and add to the batter.
Pour the batter into layer pans and bake until golden.
Ice and assemble
Beat the egg whites for the icing.
Gradually add powdered sugar to the beaten egg whites.
Soak coconut in milk before use.
Spread icing on one cake layer.
Add a layer of coconut soaked in milk.
Spread more icing over the coconut layer.
Repeat layering with remaining cake layers.
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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Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,648 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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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).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 and beaten yolks give the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's crumb structure as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps tenderize the crumb and brown the surface.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity of cream of tartar and heat to lift the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter, stabilizing the egg whites and helping the cake rise evenly.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the icing and helps it hold its soft, spreadable body.
The step that matters
Fold in the beaten egg whites until combined. Overbeating or deflating the whites loses the air that gives the cake its lift, so fold gently until just combined.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, cream, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, cream, 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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