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Dessert

Almond Cream Cake

A layered almond cake with a sweet almond 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

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

  2. In a bowl, cream together 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of butter until light and fluffy.

  3. Add ¾ cup of sweet milk and mix well.

  4. Sift together 3 cups of flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.

  5. Fold in the whites of 6 beaten eggs.

  6. Divide the batter into three layers and bake until golden.

Make the almond cream

  1. For the cream, combine 2 eggs, ½ cup of sugar, and 1 pint of milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in 3 tablespoons of corn starch and boil over a double boiler until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in ½ pound of blanched and chopped 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it bakes.
Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a tender texture.
Eggs
Whites add structure and lift; whole eggs thicken the cream and add richness.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the layers rise.
Corn starch
Thickens the cream as it heats, giving it a smooth, set body.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and a chopped texture to the cream.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream over a double boiler. Cornstarch needs to reach a full boil to gelatinize and thicken. Heating gently over a double boiler and stirring constantly prevents the eggs from scrambling and the milk from scorching.

“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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