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Dessert

Cocoanut and Almond Cake

A baked cake with coconut, almonds, and rose water icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Cocoanut and Almond Cake

Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cocoanut and Almond 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 batter

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

  2. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice and zest, and nutmeg. Mix well.

  4. Add the milk, egg whites, and flour alternately.

  5. Gently fold in the grated coconut.

  6. Pour the batter into four jelly cake tins.

Bake and make the almond icing

  1. Bake until golden.

  2. Blanch the almonds. Let them cool and dry.

  3. Pound the almonds in a mortar.

  4. Add rose water gradually.

  5. Reserve about two dozen almonds to shred for the top.

  6. Stir the almond paste into the icing after it is made.

Assemble and finish

  1. Spread the icing between the cooled cakes.

  2. Make the top layer thicker.

  3. Press the shredded almonds on top.

  4. Place the cake in the oven to harden, ensuring it does not scorch.

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.

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.

  1. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Coconut + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together411 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + coconuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

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

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 give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Egg whites
Whisked stiff and folded in to lighten the batter and add structure as it bakes.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it sets.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps create a fine texture.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into a paste that adds richness, flavour and moisture to the icing.
Grated coconut
Folded into the batter to add moisture and a distinct coconut flavour.

The step that matters

Place the cake in the oven to harden, ensuring it does not scorch.. Extra time in the heat sets the icing and top layer, but sugars and almonds brown quickly, so the cake must be watched closely to avoid scorching.

Swap the coconut

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, milk, nutmeg, lemon. 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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