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Dessert

Prune Almond Cake

A baked cake made with butter, sugar, milk, corn starch, flour, baking powder, egg whites, almond extract, prunes, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Prune Almond 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. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the milk, corn starch, flour, and baking powder; mix well.

  4. Fold in the egg whites gently until combined.

  5. Pour the batter into a greased dripping pan and bake until golden.

Fill and frost

  1. Once baked, cut the cake in half crosswise.

  2. Prepare enough boiled frosting for two layers.

  3. Mix ⅓ of the frosting with the chopped prunes and almonds.

  4. Spread the prune‑almond mixture between the layers and on top.

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

Butter
Creams with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Egg whites
Folded in to add lift and structure as the batter sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes airy.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Corn starch
Softens the crumb, giving a finer, more tender texture than flour alone.
Prunes
Add moisture and a rich, sweet flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites intact. Stirring vigorously knocks out that air, so the cake rises less and turns denser.

“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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