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Dessert

Jllmond Savoy Cakes and Almond Hearts

A sweet almond cake with yolks, whites, and flour, baked in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour 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 ↓

Jllmond Savoy Cakes and Almond Hearts

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 batter

  1. Pound the almonds with the sugar in a mortar and sift through a wire sieve or grind in a mill.

  2. Mix the ground almonds with the sugar in the mortar.

  3. Mix the whole eggs well with the almond-sugar mixture.

  4. Gradually add the yolks, stirring until light.

  5. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites and then the flour.

Bake

  1. Prepare molds for Savoy cakes by buttering them.

  2. Fill the molds three-quarters full and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  3. For almond hearts, butter heart-shaped tins without bottoms, place on a baking plate, fill nearly three-quarters full, dust with sugar, and bake in a moderate oven.

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. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Blanched sweet almonds
Provide the nutty flavour and the bulk of the cake's structure when ground fine.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps the cakes brown and keep moisture.
Yolks of eggs
Add richness and fat, and help make the batter tender.
Whole eggs
Bind the almond-sugar mixture and add structure as the cakes set.
Whites of eggs
Whipped and folded in, they lighten the batter and help it rise in the oven.
Flour
Adds structure so the cakes hold their shape after baking.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites. Stirring hard knocks that air out, so the cakes rise less and turn out dense.

“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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