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Dessert

Cocoanut and Almond Cake

A moist cake made with coconut, almonds, and a rose water almond paste filling.

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.

Make 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, lemon zest, and nutmeg.

  4. Mix well, then add the milk, egg whites, and flour alternately.

  5. Gently fold in the grated coconut.

  6. Divide the batter into four jelly‑cake tins and bake until golden.

Make the almond filling

  1. For the filling, blanch the almonds, then let them cool and dry.

  2. Pound the almonds in a mortar, adding rose water gradually.

  3. Reserve about 24 almonds to shred for topping.

  4. Mix the almond paste into the icing after it is made.

Assemble and finish

  1. Spread the icing between the cooled cakes, making the top layer thicker.

  2. Press the shredded almonds onto the top layer.

  3. Return the cake to the oven to harden, avoiding scorching.

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
Creams with the sugar to give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps give a fine, even texture.
Egg whites
Whisked stiff and folded in, they add lift and structure to the batter.
Prepared flour
Forms the main structure of the cake as the batter sets in the oven.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into the icing, they add flavour, richness and a nutty texture.
Grated coconut
Folded into the batter, it adds moisture and coconut flavour.

The step that matters

Return the cake to the oven to harden, avoiding scorching. Brief heat firms the icing and almond topping, but the sugars and proteins brown quickly, so scorching happens easily if the cake stays in too long or the heat is too high.

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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