Skip to main content
Dessert

Cream Almond Cake

A layered cake with almond-flavored cream filling and almond garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Cream 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. Beat together 2 cups of sugar and 6 eggs until well combined.

  3. Add 1 cup of rich milk, 3 cups of sifted flour, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder. Mix well.

  4. Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.

  5. Bake until golden.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, cook ¾ pint of sweet cream in a double boiler until boiling.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat together 1 egg, 1 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, and 1 tablespoon of soaked gelatin.

  3. Add this mixture to the boiling cream and stir constantly for 5 minutes.

  4. Once cooled, add almond extract to the filling.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Spread the filling on each layer of cake.

  2. Sprinkle with finely chopped almonds.

  3. Top the final layer with whole almonds for decoration.

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. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the cake crumb.
All-purpose flour
Provides the main structure of the cake as gluten forms during mixing and baking.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and turn light.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, creamy body.
Cornstarch
Thickens the filling as it heats, giving it a set, spreadable texture.
Gelatin
Helps the filling set and hold its shape once cooled.

The step that matters

Stir the filling constantly while it thickens. Egg and cornstarch mixtures can scorch or lump on contact with hot cream. Constant stirring keeps heat even, so the filling thickens smoothly instead of curdling or sticking to the pan.

“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