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.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add the baking powder dissolved in sweet milk, then mix in the eggs and grated orange rind.
Gradually add flour until the batter reaches a smooth consistency.
Bake and make the filling
Divide the batter into two round cake pans and bake until golden.
For the filling, grate the yellow rind of 6 oranges into a dish, discarding the white part.
Slice the oranges finely and add them to the dish with the grated rind.
Let the juice settle, then remove some pieces from the top.
Thicken the remaining juice with powdered sugar.
Assemble
Layer some sliced oranges between the cake layers and on top, pouring syrup over each layer.
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.
-
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender texture and rich flavor.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter set and bind during baking.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise and become airy.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the crumb as the cake bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy creamed base.
- Oranges
- Supply aromatic flavor and moisture through their rind, slices and juice.
The step that matters
Thicken the remaining juice with powdered sugar. Sugar dissolved in juice forms a syrup that soaks into the cake layers; if the mixture is too thin it will make the layers soggy, so it should be thickened as directed before pouring.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, milk, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, milk, 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.
More orange cake recipes
You might also like
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 recipes
Orange Custard56 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.