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Dessert

Orange Cake

A moist orange cake layered with a sweet orange filling and topped with orange pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Orange Cake

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Orange Cake

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.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sweet milk and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

  6. Incorporate the egg yolks, grated orange peel, and juice of 1 orange.

  7. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the batter.

  8. Divide the batter into four layers.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the filling, beat the egg whites with the juice of 1 orange and 15 tablespoons of sugar until smooth.

  3. Spread the filling between the layers and on the outside of the cake.

Top and serve

  1. Pare and cut the remaining 2 oranges into small pieces.

  2. Place them on top of the cake.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Yolks enrich the batter and whites, whipped to stiff peaks, lighten the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness and helps the creamed batter hold air.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, traps air for a softer texture.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and stay light.
Oranges
Peel and juice add citrus aroma and acidity to the batter, filling, and topping.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites whipped to stiff peaks hold the air that lightens the cake. Stirring them in vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a denser layer, so fold gently until just combined.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, flour, egg. 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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