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Dessert

Cocoanut Layer Cake

A layered cake made with powdered sugar, butter, egg whites, milk, flour, vanilla, baking powder, and coconut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cocoanut Layer 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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Cream together the powdered sugar and butter.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the creamed mixture.

  4. Add the milk and vanilla extract, then mix well.

  5. Sift the flour and baking powder together, then gradually add to the mixture.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the batter into layer cake tins and bake until golden.

  2. Once cooled, layer the cakes with icing and sprinkle grated coconut in between each layer.

  3. Ice the top and sides of the cake, then sprinkle with more coconut.

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and help the cake rise and hold its structure.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar, it traps air and adds richness and tender texture.
Powdered sugar
Creamed with the butter, it adds sweetness and helps give a fine, even crumb.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the layers rise and become light.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiff egg whites. Stiff whites hold the air that lifts the batter. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates it, leaving a dense, flat layer.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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