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Dessert

Almond Cream Cake

A layered cake made with a meringue base and almond‑infused cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the cake layers

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

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Sift the powdered sugar and flour with the cream of tartar, then gently fold into the egg whites.

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

Make the almond cream

  1. For the cream, heat the heavy cream in a saucepan.

  2. In a separate bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in a little milk, then beat in the egg yolks and powdered sugar.

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

  4. Remove from heat and fold in the chopped almonds.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Assemble the cake by spreading the cream between layers while the icing is still soft.

  2. Decorate the top with the split almonds.

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. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream as they cook, and add richness and a custard-like texture.
All-purpose flour
Provides structure once baked, holding the light foam together as the layers set.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and dissolves easily into the whipped whites and the cream.
Heavy cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, creamy body.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and a pleasant texture to the cream filling and the decoration.

The step that matters

Folding the flour into the egg whites. Gentle folding keeps the air trapped in the whipped whites. Stirring or deflating the foam makes the baked layers dense and flat.

“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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