Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. 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 and bake the cake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, water, baking powder, yolks of eggs, and whites of eggs until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
Make the dressing
Beat the whites of 2 eggs.
Add grated orange rind and juice to the beaten whites.
Add sugar to thicken the mixture.
Assemble and finish
Spread the dressing between the layers of cake and return to the oven for 1 minute.
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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Flour + sugartop 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).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + orangetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,821 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 that holds the cake's crumb together.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, and the whites help trap air for lightness.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps tenderise the crumb and thicken the dressing.
- Oranges
- Rind gives aroma and juice adds acidity and fresh citrus flavour.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites for the dressing. Whites must be beaten until they hold a foam before sugar is added; under-beaten whites stay runny, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and lose their ability to thicken.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg. 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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