Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. 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 until light and fluffy.
Add the flour, egg whites, orange juice, and water mixture, and baking powder. Mix until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased cake pan.
Bake and make the frosting
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
For the frosting, combine 1 ½ cups sugar and ½ cup milk in a saucepan. Cook until it begins to harden in cold water.
Grate the rind of one orange. Add a little of the syrup to extract the flavor.
Strain and mix into the frosting while it cools. Once the frosting has stopped boiling, stir until creamy.
Spread quickly on top of the 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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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).
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 trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
- Flour
- Forms the cake's structure when set by heat.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and help the batter bake up light.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
The step that matters
Cook the frosting syrup to the right stage. Sugar and milk must cook until they begin to harden in cold water, then cool while stirred. Undercooked frosting stays runny; overcooked frosting turns grainy or hard, and stirring while it cools encourages smooth, fine sugar crystals.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk. 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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