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Dessert

Orange Cake

A moist cake flavored with orange, topped with orange frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Orange Cake

Why it works: Lemon and orange 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

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

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add part of the milk to the butter and sugar mixture.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together.

  5. Add the sifted mixture to the batter alternately with the remaining milk.

  6. Fold in the beaten egg whites gently to retain air.

  7. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, combine ½ cup sugar, 2½ tablespoons flour, lemon juice, grated orange rind, and beaten egg in a double boiler.

  2. Cook the filling for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

Make the frosting

  1. For the frosting, mix the grated orange rind, brandy, lemon juice, and orange juice.

  2. Stir in enough confectioner's sugar to achieve a spreadable consistency.

  3. If too thick, thin with a little orange juice before spreading.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, and set as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps keep it moist and tender.
Milk
Adds moisture so the batter mixes to a smooth, pourable consistency.

The step that matters

Cook the filling gently while stirring constantly. The egg in the filling thickens as its proteins set with heat. Stirring keeps the heat even and prevents the egg from scrambling or curdling in the double boiler.

Swap the orange

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

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

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