Why it works: Sugar and flour 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. 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 your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg yolks and 1 ½ cups sugar with 1 tablespoon of ice water until smooth. Add lemon flavoring to the mixture.
Combine 1 ½ cups flour and 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder in another bowl.
Gradually add the flour mixture to the yolk mixture, alternating with ½ cup ice water.
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for 25–30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Make the filling
For the filling, combine the juice and grated peel of 2 oranges or lemons with 2 cups sugar and 2 tablespoons cold water in a pot.
Set the pot over boiling water and stir in the yolks of 2 well-beaten eggs. Just before removing from heat, stir in the beaten white of 1 egg.
Allow the filling to cool before using.
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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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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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
- Eggs
- Whites trapped in the batter create lift and a light, airy crumb, while yolks add richness and tenderness.
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the cake crumb as its proteins set during baking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps keep the crumb tender and moist.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking to make the cake rise.
- Oranges or lemons
- Juice and peel supply the acidity and citrus aroma of the filling.
The step that matters
Folding in the beaten egg whites. Stirring instead of folding deflates the whites trapped air, so the cake rises less and turns dense. Fold gently until no white streaks remain.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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