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Dessert

Almond Sponge Cake

A sponge cake made with sweet and bitter almonds, powdered sugar, eggs, flour, and baking powder, finished with rose‑water or almond icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Almond Sponge Cake

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 ↓

Almond Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sift one pint of fine flour.

  2. Add two heaping teaspoonfuls of baking powder to the flour.

  3. Blanch in scalding water two ounces of sweet and two ounces of bitter almonds, renewing the hot water when expedient.

  4. When the skins are all off, wash the almonds in cold water (mixing the sweet and bitter) and wipe them dry.

  5. Pound the almonds to a fine, smooth paste (one at a time), adding water or egg white to prevent boiling.

  6. Set the paste in a cool place.

Make the batter

  1. Beat ten eggs, the whites and yolks separately, till very smooth and thick.

  2. Beat into them gradually two cups powdered sugar in turn with the pounded almonds.

  3. Add the flour, stirring it round slowly and lightly on the surface of the mixture, as in common sponge cake.

Bake and serve

  1. Butter a deep square pan.

  2. Put the mixture carefully into the pan.

  3. Set into the oven and bake till thoroughly done and risen very high.

  4. When cool, cover it with plain white icing flavored with rose-water, or with almond icing.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

589Calories
20 gProtein
7 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 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).

Flour and egg 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

Eggs
Whipped separately, they create the foam that gives the cake its light, risen structure.
Fine flour
Forms the cake's framework once set by heat, giving it body and a tender crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the cake rise high in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps stabilize the whipped egg foam.
Almonds
Pounded into a paste, they add moisture, richness and a nutty almond flavor.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs whites and yolks separately. Whites must be beaten until smooth and thick so they trap air; this foam is what lifts the cake. Underbeaten whites or deflating the foam when folding in the flour leads to a flat, dense sponge.

“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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