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Dessert

Almond Cream Cake

A layered cake with almond-flavored cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 Cream Cake

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.

Make the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Sift the powdered sugar and flour together with the cream of tartar four or five times.

  4. Gently fold the flour and sugar mixture into the egg whites without beating.

  5. Pour the batter into jelly pans and bake until golden.

Make the cream

  1. For the cream, heat the sweet cream or milk.

  2. In a bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in a little milk.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and powdered sugar together, then mix in the cornstarch mixture.

  4. Once the cream is boiling, stir in the egg mixture and cook until thickened.

  5. Blanch and finely chop the almonds, then stir them into the cream.

Assemble

  1. Assemble the cake layers with the cream filling.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

Egg whites
Beaten stiff to trap air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
Flour
Provides structure once baked, holding the light foam together as the cake sets.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they cook, giving the filling its body and richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream filling when heated, giving it a smooth, set texture.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and texture to the cream filling.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake batter and cream, and dissolves smoothly into the mixtures.

The step that matters

Folding the flour mixture into the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Beating would deflate the foam, leaving a dense cake instead of a light, airy one.

“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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