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Dessert

Almond Cake

Almond cake made with blanched almonds, orange flower water, eggs, lemon rind, flour, baked in a buttered mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Almond Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pound the almonds in a mortar with a few drops of orange flower water to prevent oiling.

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, beat the yolks of the eggs until very light.

  2. Mix in the grated lemon rind and flour with the yolks.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites last.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered mold.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  4. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + buttertop 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

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the cake, with rich texture from their oils.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the batter, while whipped whites lighten it and help it rise.
Flour
Gives the cake its structure as it sets during baking.
Lemon rind
Adds bright aromatic flavor that balances the sweetness of the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites hold air only when whipped, and deflating them by stirring vigorously loses the lift that makes the cake light. Fold gently and quickly so the batter keeps its volume.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Orangethe original

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

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