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Dessert

Prince of Wales Cake

A two-layer cake with brown and white batters, topped with almond cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Prince of Wales 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batters

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together ½ cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar. Add ½ cup sour milk, 1 cup flour, 1 cup cornstarch, 4 egg yolks, ½ teaspoon baking soda dissolved in warm water, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon nutmeg to the batter. Mix well.

  3. In another bowl, cream together 1 cup butter and 1 cup powdered sugar. Add ½ cup sweet milk, 1 cup flour, ½ cup cornstarch, 3 egg whites, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon almond or vanilla flavoring to the batter. Mix well.

  4. Grease and flour two cake pans.

  5. Pour the brown mixture into one pan and the white mixture into the other.

Bake and make the filling

  1. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  2. For the almond cream filling, blanch and pound 1 pound of almonds to a paste. Mix the almond paste with 1 coffee cup sweet cream, 2 tablespoons scalded cornstarch, 1 tablespoon sugar, and a little almond extract. Beat well.

Assemble and finish

  1. Once the cakes are cool, layer them alternately with the almond cream filling.

  2. Frost the top with plain frosting if desired.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks and whites add structure and richness as they set during baking.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and adds tenderness and richness to the crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture, a caramel-like sweetness, and a darker color to the brown batter.
Flour
Forms the main structure of the cake crumb once heated.
Cornstarch
Softens the crumb, giving a tender, finer texture than flour alone.
Almonds
Ground into the filling, providing nutty flavor and a rich, paste-like body.

The step that matters

Scalding the cornstarch for the almond filling. Cornstarch thickens only when heated in liquid, so scalding it with the cream lets it gelatinize and give the filling a smooth, stable body.

“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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