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Dessert

Polonaise Cake

A layered butter cake with macaroons, crystallized fruit, almonds, and citron, topped with powdered sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Polonaise 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.

Prepare the layers

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

  2. Cream the butter.

  3. Gradually add the powdered sugar.

  4. Mix in the flour, baking powder, and milk until smooth.

  5. Divide the batter into four layers.

  6. Bake the layers until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, boil 3 cups of powdered sugar with a little water until brittle.

  2. Pour the hot sugar over the beaten egg whites and stir until cool.

Assemble and frost

  1. On the first layer, spread the chopped macaroons mixed with some frosting.

  2. On the second layer, spread the chopped crystallized fruit mixed with some frosting and lemon flavor.

  3. On the third layer, spread the chopped almonds and citron mixed with some frosting, almond extract, and rose water.

  4. Frost the top layer with the remaining frosting mixed with a little crystallized fruit.

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 + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the layers a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the layers together.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the layers rise.
Egg whites
Beaten whites add lightness and, cooked with hot sugar, set the filling.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and, cooked to brittle, hardens into the filling.
Blanched almonds
Add body and nutty flavor to the third layer's filling.

The step that matters

Pour the hot sugar over the beaten egg whites. Hot sugar syrup cooks the egg white proteins as it is poured and beaten in, forming a stable, marshmallow-like filling. If the syrup is too cool it stays runny, and if the whites are overbeaten or poured too fast they can deflate or clump.

“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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