Why it works: Butter and coconut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cake Pudding
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Break the cake into small pieces and place them in a buttered pudding dish.
Make the custard
Prepare a rich custard and pour it over the cake pieces.
Bake and serve
Bake in the oven until the top is light brown, about 20-30 minutes.
For added flavor, top with coconut frosting before baking.
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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Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,467 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Old cake
- Provides the bread-like base that soaks up custard and holds the pudding's structure.
- Custard
- Supplies moisture and richness, and its egg proteins set into a creamy texture when baked.
The step that matters
Bake until the top is light brown. The custard sets as its egg proteins firm with heat. Underbaking leaves it loose and wet, while overbaking makes it dry, grainy, or curdled.
“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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