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Dessert

Almond Cake

A baked loaf made with flour, sugar, almonds, butter, milk, wine, baking soda, cream of tartar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds, slice the sweet almonds into thin shreds, and pound the bitter almonds into a smooth paste.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter with the sugar and the pounded bitter almonds.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.

  3. Sift the flour with the cream of tartar and mix it in.

  4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the batter along with the wine and sliced almonds.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into loaf pans and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure once its starch sets during baking.
Butter
Creams with the sugar to give a tender, rich crumb.
Whites of 8 eggs
Beaten to stiff peaks, they lighten the batter and help it rise.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar and milk to leaven the cake.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the batter so it reacts with the baking soda and stabilizes the egg whites.
Sweet almonds
Shredded almonds add texture and a nutty flavor throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Under-beaten whites leave the cake dense, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and collapse. Folding gently keeps the trapped air that lifts the batter during baking.

“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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