Why it works: Milk and butter 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 cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix sugar, flour, milk, eggs, baking powder, and melted butter until smooth.
Pour the batter into jelly cake tins and bake until golden.
Make the frosting and assemble
For the frosting, beat the egg whites until stiff.
Add the juice and grated rind of the orange, then gradually mix in powdered sugar until thick.
Spread the frosting between the cake layers and on top.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 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).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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
- Forms the main structure of the cake batter.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness to the cake batter.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas to help the cake rise.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and moisture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Thickens the whipped egg white frosting and sweetens it.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten to stiff peaks so they trap air and hold their shape. Under-beaten whites produce a loose frosting, and any trace of fat or yolk can stop them from whipping properly.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, milk, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, milk, egg, butter. 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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