Skip to main content
Dessert

Savarin Cake

A yeast‑leavened cake with butter, eggs, milk, candied peel, almonds, and liqueur syrup.

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 ↓

Savarin Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sponge

  1. Put the flour in a pan.

  2. Make a hollow in the center.

  3. Dissolve the yeast in a small quantity of warm milk.

  4. Pour the yeast mixture into the hollow.

  5. Beat in about a quarter of the flour. Sprinkle flour over the batter.

  6. Let the sponge rise in a warm place until it doubles in size.

Make the batter

  1. Work in the warm milk and 2 eggs with a spoon or your hand.

  2. Gradually add the butter, dissolved salt, powdered sugar, additional milk, and 3 more eggs, one at a time.

  3. Add the candied peel.

  4. Beat until the mixture leaves the sides of the bowl easily.

Bake and finish

  1. Butter the inside of a fluted mold.

  2. Sprinkle with chopped almonds.

  3. Half fill the mold with the batter.

  4. Let it rise until level with the top.

  5. Tie a band of buttered paper around the top of the mold to prevent overflow.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 1 hour or until done.

  7. Carefully turn out the cake.

  8. Run a skewer into it.

  9. Pour over a thick syrup flavored with liqueur.

  10. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the surface.

  11. Serve warm.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the risen cake together.
Eggs
Add structure and richness as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
German yeast
Produces gas in the sponge so the cake rises light.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form the soft dough-like batter.

The step that matters

Let the sponge rise until it doubles in size. Yeast needs a warm place and enough time to produce gas; an underproofed sponge leaves the cake dense and short on lift.

“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