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 ↓
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Make the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.
Add the cold water, flour, baking powder, and minced orange pulp. Mix well.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Fold the beaten egg whites into the cake batter.
Pour the batter into three greased jelly tins.
Bake
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Frost and assemble
For the frosting, beat the reserved egg whites with ⅔ cup sugar and grated orange peel until smooth.
Use the frosting to fill and top the cooled cake.
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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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 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).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites trap air that lifts the cake, and the yolks add richness.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar, it adds tenderness and a rich flavour to the crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
- Flour
- Forms the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter, making the cake rise and open up.
- Orange
- Adds moisture, citrus acidity and aroma to the batter.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Fold gently so the air trapped in the whites stays in the batter. Stirring hard or letting the whites deflate makes the cake dense and flat, because the air is what lifts it in the oven.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, 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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