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Cocoanut Cream Cake

A moist cake with coconut cream topping made from eggs, sugar, butter, milk, flour, coconut, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cocoanut Cream 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

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

  2. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  5. Gradually add the milk mixture to the creamed mixture, alternating with the flour.

Make the coconut cream

  1. In a saucepan, scald the ½ pint of milk and stir in the shredded coconut.

  2. Add one egg, 1 tablespoon of flour, and ½ cup of sugar to the coconut mixture, stirring until it thickens.

  3. Add a pinch of salt and flavor with vanilla.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and top with the coconut cream mixture.

  2. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness through fat in the creamed base.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the batter brown and stay tender.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter, reacting with baking soda to help it rise.
Baking soda
Produces carbon dioxide with the acid, lifting the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Thickening the coconut cream. The egg and flour mixture must be stirred over heat until it thickens, because the starch and egg proteins set the custard. If it is not cooked enough it stays runny and can soak into the cake; if overcooked the egg may scramble.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Coconutthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

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