Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. 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 the butter and sugar together.
Beat the egg yolks well.
Add the beaten egg yolks to the mixture.
Stir in the milk.
Stir in the sifted flour mixed with baking powder.
Fold in the beaten egg whites.
Divide the batter into two equal pans.
Bake
Bake until golden.
Make the filling
For the filling, combine sugar, orange juice, flour, lemon juice, grated orange rind, egg, and butter in a saucepan.
Cook until the mixture thickens to a cream.
Make the frosting
For the frosting, mix grated orange rind, lemon juice, and egg yolk.
Thicken with confectioner's sugar to your desired consistency.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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
- Flour
- Builds the cake's structure as its proteins set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a tender crumb by coating flour and trapping air when creamed.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and help bind the batter as they set.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise in the oven.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown, and softens the crumb.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, pourable batter.
The step that matters
Cook the filling until it thickens. The mixture thickens as starch granules swell and egg proteins set with heat. Stirring keeps it smooth and stops the egg from scrambling or scorching on the base of the saucepan.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, lemon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, milk, flour, lemon. 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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