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Dessert

Almond Cakes

Almond cakes are small sweet cakes made from almonds, sugar, egg whites, topped with sliced almonds and dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pound the almonds with the sugar in a mortar and sift through a flour sieve.

  2. In a clean pan, combine the almond-sugar mixture with the egg whites and beat well.

Shape and top

  1. Drop small amounts onto wafer paper placed on clean baking sheets, about the size of a walnut and an inch apart.

  2. Top each with a few slices of almond and dust lightly with powdered sugar.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  2. If they do not crack sufficiently, lightly brush with clean water before adding more to the oven.

  3. Once cooled, carefully remove the wafer paper from the edges.

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

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

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

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the cakes.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it bind and brown during baking.
Egg whites
Bind the almond and sugar mixture and help the cakes set and hold their shape.

The step that matters

Baking at a slow oven temperature. Baking gently at a low temperature dries the surface slowly so the cakes set and crack rather than spreading or browning too quickly. Too high a heat can scorch the sugar before the centers firm up.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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