Name: Burnt Orange Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 egg-sized piece of butter; a little salt; 2 egg yolks, beaten; grated rind of 1 orange; juice of 1 orange; water (to fill cup 2/3 full); 1 ½ cups flour; 1 heaping teaspoon baking powder

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Burnt Orange Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Blend the sugar, butter, salt, beaten egg yolks, grated orange rind, and orange juice.
Fill the orange juice cup with water until it is 2/3 full and add to the mixture.
Sift the baking powder with the flour and add to the mixture, then beat well.

Bake and ice

Bake in two layers and ice once cooled.

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.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Egg yolks: Add richness and help bind the batter into a tender crumb.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the cake once the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and turns light.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and a richer flavor in the crumb.
Sugar: Sweetens the cake and helps brown the crust while it bakes.
Orange juice: Adds moisture and bright citrus acidity that flavors the cake.