Skip to main content
Dessert

Polonaise Cake

A layered cake with fillings of chopped macaroons, crystallized fruit, almonds and citron, bound with boiled sugar frosting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

Make the batter

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

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

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together.

  5. Gradually add the flour and baking powder to the mixture.

  6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  7. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter.

  8. Divide the batter into four layers and bake until golden.

Make the filling

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

  2. Pour the hot sugar over the beaten whites of 4 eggs, then stir until cool.

Fill and frost

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

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

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

  4. Frost the top 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the layers together after baking.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb to the cake layers.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the batter and add structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the layers rise.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and, boiled, forms the brittle sugar used in the frosting.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and texture to the third layer's filling.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot sugar over the egg whites. The hot sugar syrup partly cooks and stiffens the egg whites, so it must go in while still hot and be stirred until cool. Adding it too slowly or too cool can leave the frosting lumpy or loose.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, butter, egg, almond, rose. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes