Why it works: Almond and flour 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 Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the almonds
Scald the almonds in hot water, peel them, and place them in cold water.
Wipe the almonds dry and pound them until smooth.
Make the batter
Separate the eggs, placing yolks in one bowl and whites in another.
Beat the whites until light.
Beat the yolks until light and fluffy.
Gradually add the powdered sugar to the yolks while beating.
Mix in the pounded almonds and rose water.
Fold half of the beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture.
Gently stir in half of the flour until it bubbles on top.
Fold in the remaining egg whites.
Fold in the rest of the flour very lightly.
Butter a large square tin pan and pour in the mixture.
Bake and ice
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until done, ensuring the bottom is hotter than the top.
To make the icing, beat the egg whites with the powdered sugar and essence of lemon until smooth.
Once the cake is cool, mark it into small squares with a knife.
Cover with icing and decorate with nonpareils while wet.
Allow the icing to dry, then carefully cut the cake into squares.
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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Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,673 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,465 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,174 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Whites trapped by beating give the cake its light, airy structure when set by heat.
- Flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that set the cake's crumb once baked.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks beat into a stable, fluffy base.
- Blanched bitter almonds
- Add nutty, aromatic flavour and fat that keeps the crumb moist and tender.
The step that matters
Folding the egg whites and flour. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites; stirring hard deflates the batter, leaving a dense, heavy cake instead of a light one.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, flour, egg, sugar, rose):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, flour, egg, sugar, rose. 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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