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Dessert

Variety Cake

A layered cake made from two batters flavored with orange, vanilla, rose, lemon, and colored with chocolate and cochineal, topped with boiled icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Variety Cake

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Variety 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.

Make the first batter

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add milk, egg yolks, and baking powder to the flour. Mix well.

  3. Divide the batter in half.

  4. Flavor one half with orange water.

  5. Flavor the other half with vanilla.

  6. Add grated chocolate for color.

  7. Bake in two jelly tins at 350°F (175°C).

Make the second batter

  1. For the second batter, cream butter and sugar.

  2. Add sweet milk, egg whites, and baking powder to the flour. Divide this batter.

  3. Flavor one half with rose water.

  4. Flavor the other half with lemon.

  5. Use pulverized cochineal for color.

  6. Bake in two jelly tins at 350°F (175°C).

Layer and finish

  1. Once baked, layer the cakes starting with the brown.

  2. Then layer the white.

  3. Then layer the red.

  4. Then layer the yellow.

  5. Add jelly between layers.

  6. Frost the top with boiled icing.

  7. Once cold and hard, decorate with a funnel of frosting.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cake's crumb together.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps the crust brown.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, with the whites helping the cake set.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the cake rise and lighten.
Milk
Adds moisture to the batter.

The step that matters

Let the cakes cool fully before frosting. Frosting warm cake melts the icing and it slides off. Cooling firms the crumb so the layers hold their shape and the frosting sets cleanly.

Swap the orange

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

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

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