Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Bread, Cakes and Biscuits
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a large bowl, beat 153 eggs one at a time.
Stir in the flour, coconut, and baking powder.
Line a Yorkshire tin with greased paper.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
Turn the cake upside down to cool.
Ice and decorate
Once cooled, pour over white glace icing and let it set.
Cut into shapes and decorate.
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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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).
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Egg + coconuttop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,090 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Beaten in one at a time, they trap air and give the cake its structure and lift.
- Flour
- Its proteins and starch set during baking, forming the cake's firm crumb.
- Coconut
- Adds flavour and fat, keeping the crumb moist and tender.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas when heated, making the batter rise in the oven.
The step that matters
Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.. Baking time controls how far the batter sets. Too little leaves the centre wet and collapsing, while too long dries the crumb and firms the structure too much.
Swap the coconut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Coconutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour. 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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