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 ↓
Silver Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the whipped egg whites.
Stir in the flour.
Finally, mix in the essence of bitter almonds.
Bake and assemble
Bake in corresponding sized tins.
Layer the cakes in alternate slices in a cake basket.
Finish
Flavor the icing with rose-water.
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.
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Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,245 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Butter
- Creams with sugar to trap air and give a tender, rich crumb.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps the creamed butter hold air for a light texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped, they add air and lift, giving the cake structure as it sets.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
- Essence of bitter almonds
- Adds the characteristic almond aroma and flavor.
The step that matters
Adding the whipped egg whites. Whipped egg whites hold air that makes the cake light. Stirring them in too vigorously deflates the foam, so the cake bakes up dense. Fold gently and keep the air in the batter.
“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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