Skip to main content
Dessert

Almond Cream Cake

A cake made with almond cream, egg whites, powdered sugar, flour, and heavy cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. Beat the egg whites and 1 ½ cups powdered sugar together until stiff peaks form.

  3. In a saucepan, boil the heavy cream.

  4. In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks, 1 tablespoon powdered sugar, and dissolved cornstarch.

  5. Slowly add the hot cream to the egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly.

  6. Blanch and chop the almonds, then stir them into the cream mixture.

  7. Fold the almond cream into the beaten egg whites gently.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a cake pan and bake until set.

  2. Let cool and serve like a jelly cake.

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 give the cake its light, airy structure.
Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the cake.
Egg yolks
Combined with hot cream and cornstarch, they thicken and enrich the almond cream.
Cornstarch
Thickens the yolk and cream mixture so it holds its shape when baked.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and moisture to the almond cream.

The step that matters

Folding the almond cream into the egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air trapped in the whipped egg whites. Stirring or deflating them makes the cake dense and flat after baking.

“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.

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes