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Dessert

Loaf Cakes

A sweet loaf-shaped cake made with egg whites, sugar, butter, flour, almonds, citron, coconut, and flavored with bitter almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Loaf 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 sweet and bitter almonds in a mortar with a little rose water to prevent oiling.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until they stand alone.

  3. Cream the butter.

Make the batter

  1. Stir in the flour until quite stiff.

  2. Add the egg whites and sugar alternately with the flour. Reserve a little flour for the fruit.

  3. Mix until well combined.

  4. Flavor with vanilla or extract of bitter almonds.

  5. Flour the citron and coconut. Stir them in last.

Bake

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C), being careful not to burn it.

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 + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 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

Egg whites
Whisked to stand alone, they lighten the batter and give it structure as it bakes.
Butter
Creamed with the sugar, it adds fat and tenderness to the crumb.
Flour
Stiffens the batter and forms the structure that holds the cake together.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into a paste, they add richness, moisture and nutty flavor.
Citron
Floured before folding in, it adds fruity flavor and chew while keeping pieces suspended.

The step that matters

Baking in a slow oven. A low, steady heat lets the large cake bake through evenly while the outside stays pale. Too high a temperature would scorch the surface before the center sets.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, almond, rose. 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.

More loaf cake recipes

Chocolate 35French 25Raisin 19Indian 17Coconut 16Plain 13 See all 114 →

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