Why it works: Flour and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,821 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Orange Cake, Rich
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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
Make the cake batter as you would for Madeira cake.
Add the shredded orange peel, citron, and glacé oranges to the batter. Flavor the mixture with orange flower water to your liking.
Pour the batter into a greased and lined cake tin.
Bake and decorate
Bake until done, then cover the top with glacé icing.
If desired, pipe green icing around the edges.
For decoration, lay slices of green fruit on top and garnish with green leaves.
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.
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Flour + orangetop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,821 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
- Oatmeal
- Adds a coarse, slightly chewy texture and absorbs moisture in the batter.
- Shredded orange peel
- Adds concentrated citrus aroma and flavor throughout the cake.
- Citron
- Adds candied fruit flavor and chewy pieces that contrast with the crumb.
- Crystallized or glacé oranges
- Adds sweetness and moist, chewy bits of candied orange flavor.
The step that matters
Bake until done, then cover the top with glacé icing. Icing a cake before it has fully baked and cooled can cause it to melt, slide, or turn sticky. Full cooling lets the icing set and stay in place.
“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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