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Dessert

Cocoanut and Citron Layer Cake

A layer cake of butter batter, filled and topped with whipped cream mixed with grated fresh coconut and minced citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cocoanut and Citron 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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Rub together the butter and powdered sugar until creamy.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and water, mixing well.

  4. Sift the flour with baking powder and gradually add to the mixture. If the batter is too thin, add more flour cautiously.

  5. Pour the batter into three greased layer-cake tins.

  6. Bake until golden brown.

Make the coconut cream and assemble

  1. Whip the cream until stiff, then mix in the powdered sugar and grated coconut.

  2. Once the cake is cool, spread the coconut cream mixture between the layers and sprinkle with minced citron.

  3. Top the cake with the remaining coconut cream and garnish with bits of green citron.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the batter a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Provide structure and richness as the batter sets in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cake layers.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise and stay light.
Heavy cream
Whipped to a stiff foam that adds moisture and richness to the filling and topping.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, sweetness and coconut flavor to the cream filling.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Flour should be sifted with the baking powder and added gradually. Adding too much flour at once, or too much overall, makes the batter stiff and dense, while a thin batter may spread and bake unevenly.

“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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